Z-Day
by StraightFire HugLife
Summary: When you work for the WWE you are used to seeing some unusual things being on the road for 300 days a year, but what happens when the world gets turned upside down and the dead start walking the earth? How will our favorite WWE superstars fair?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Being a wrestler with the WWE and being on the road for 300 days a year you see some weird shit. The last few weeks though have been some of the craziest I have ever seen. There had started to be some scary stories on the news of people going insane and attacking complete strangers on the street without any provocation. At first these stories were only taking place in the larger cities but all too quickly the number of attacks grew and spread all across the country. Local police forces were becoming overwhelmed so the military was called in and set up shop in the larger cities. This only added to the growing sense of panic that was sweeping across the nation.

I roll into the parking garage of the TD Garden in Boston with my friend Ravyn, her boyfriend Tyler and his tag team partner Fandango. We check in with the military and park the car. "Wonder how big the crowd will be tonight…" I wonder out loud unloading my bags from the trunk. "Even if there is only a few hundred people here it will be better than Chicago last week. That was just un real." Tyler says remembering our show last week where there was hardly anyone in the crowd. "Guess we will just have to wait and see." Ravyn adds closing the trunk and we head inside the building.

I make my way back up the ramp after my match high fiving fans on the way. There was maybe at most a thousand people but they seemed to be enjoying the show despite everything going on. Waiting for me backstage is Ravyn, "great match friend! Keep it up and maybe you will get a title push soon." I roll my eyes, "right, like Princess Bella would give up her title." Ravyn laughs, "Hey she has to drop the belt sometimes why not someone the crowd actually likes right now? Time for a face champ if you ask me." She no more says her sentence and Nikki comes walking to the gorilla position draped over the arm of her boyfriend John Cena as he prepares to go out for his main event match. "Come on, go get cleaned up so we can hit the road." Ravyn tells me and I mock salute her "yes ma'am!" I give her my best shit eating grin while she pretends to be mad at me before we lock up and she pins my arm behind my back and starts to wrestle me towards the locker room as I laugh trying to break her hold before I accidentally bump into someone, "shit sorry!" I apologize before looking to see who it is I ran into and look into the eyes of Dolph Ziggler and he doesn't look very happy. "Don't you two ever behave?" Ravyn and I look at each other and shake our heads and say in unison "Nah." He still looks annoyed "I figured as much. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go steal the show." He walks away towards the stage entrance before Ravyn and I continue on to the locker room.

I take a quick shower and change into my traveling clothes before gathering up all my gear and Ravyn and I go to meet up with Tyler. We find him on an equipment cart texting 'finally! Were the two of you up to shenanigans again?" he jokes. "Naturally." Is my immediate reply. "And who did you annoy this time?" I fake that my feelings are hurt "and who says we annoyed anyone?" he shoots me a look that says 'I know you two' and I roll my eyes, "fine…we may have gotten under Ziggler's skin a bit." He smiles at me and I stick my tongue out at him as he climbs down off the cart. "We not waiting for Dango?" I ask realizing he isn't with us. "He is going to ride this leg with Sami and some other guys." As we walk by the gorilla position there are bunch of people gathered around the monitors. That's not an unusual occurrence, people often gather to watch matches but this doesn't have that vibe to it. I peak through the crowd and see that they are watching the National News. The scene on the screen is one of total chaos. There is a wall of soldiers firing upon a group of people but no matter how many bullets hit the people they don't stop advancing. Everyone is watching in complete shock. The feed changes to another city and it is a moment before the words 'Boston, MA' flash on the screen. Some people gasp while others walk away wanting to leave right then and get out of the city. I glance sideways at Ravyn and Tyler "what should we do?" Tyler shakes his head "I don't fancy turning a corner and running into that. We have no idea where in the city that is, hell they could be right outside here." The words are no more out of his mouth when there is a popping sound off in the distance. "That sounded like gunshots…" one of the crew members gathered at the TV pancis as the sound intensifies.

Our attention is brought back to the TV as the president's face appears. We listen intently as he gives a speech about the state of the nation. Apparently these incidents are happening all over the country. It appears there has been an outbreak of a virus that is causing people to rise from the dead and turn into blood thirsty monsters. The government tried to keep it contained but it became too widespread too quickly and now we are in a state of emergency. He warns everyone to please stay in their homes and to not panic. He wishes us luck before signing off. We are left in a stunned silence. I look over to Ravyn and Tyler. Ravyn has her hand over her mouth while Tyler holds her.

There is a scream down the hallway to our left. I start to take a few steps in that direction my curiosity getting the better of me "J! What are you doing?" I turn back at the sound of Ravyn's voice. There are more gunshots, much louder this this time because these shots are inside the building. The shots are coming from inside the arena and down the hallway where the scream came from. People are screaming out in the arena and soon the backstage area is getting flooding with the crew from ringside and I find myself being shoved aside in the panic and get forced closer towards the doorway where the gunfire is. I try to fight my way back through the crowd but I can't. I can hear Ravyn and Tyler yelling my name but with one final surge of the crowd I get shoved through the doors and they slam closed in my face. I pull on the handle but the door is locked from the other side. "Shit. This is just great." I say out loud and I hear a shuffling sound behind me. I turn around to see a woman making her way up the hallway towards me. She looks injured, covered in blood dragging her left leg. "Hey…are you okay?" I get no response. "Do you need some help?" still nothing. I take a few steps forward but stop dead in my tracks in complete disgust. This is not just any person. This woman appears to be dead. She is riddled with bullet holes, flesh rotting off her bones yet she I still walking towards me. I begin to panic. I turn back to the door and start pounding on it screaming for someone to open it. I glance back to see how far away from the dead woman is and to my horror another dead person comes around the corner behind her. "Fuck" I mutter and I pick up the intensity of my pleas for someone to open the door. I don't turn around again until I hear footsteps and turn to a find a solider run right past the dead one further down the hall and then drive a knife right through the eye of the one closest to me. "You okay?" I nod unable to speak, "you need to get back through that door. We've had a breach on this side of the building. It's not safe." He tells me glancing down the hall way. "The door is locked from the other side." I say finding my voice but not taking my eyes of the other dead person as it gets closer to us. The soldier draws his weapon and fires a shot right between the eyes. "Head shots are the only way to stop them as far we can tell." He tells me holstering his gun as I just stand there in shock staring at the two bodies. The soldier grips me by the shoulders and forces me to look him in the eyes, "Come on, we need to get this door open. There are more coming and I don't have that many rounds left in my gun." I turn my attention back to the door and begin pounding away again. Over the noise of both of us pounding on the door we don't hear the dead ones coming up behind us until they are close. I turn around with a scream when I see them so close and the soldier begins to take them out but quickly runs out of ammo so he goes for his knife and starts stabbing them one by one as they approach but the hoard becomes too thick and to my horror one of them takes a bite out of his throat. I'm too horrified to even scream as blood spurts from the wound and the hoard begins to converge on him tearing his flesh as he screams.

More soldiers come around the corner and begin plowing down the dead ones. I crouch down with my back to the door trying to stay out of the line of fire. Over the noise I don't hear the door open behind me and am caught off guard by an arm wrapping around my torso and lifting me off the ground. I scream and lash out but the arm only tightens around my waist and pulls me through the door. Just before the door closes I see a soldier put a bullet through the head of the soldier who had first come to my aide. I get set down and the arm slowly loosens its grip and I turn around to see Dolph Ziggler staring at me wide eyed in shock at what he had just seen. He still has a hand under my elbow which is a good thing because my legs are shaking so bad that I don't think I would able to hold myself up. "J!" I look around Dolph to see Ravyn and Tyler shoving their way through the crowd and Ravyn engulfs me in a hug "are you okay?" I want to say no because I'm still terrified by what I witness but at the same time I don't want to relive it. "Yeah. I'm okay." I lie as she hugs me again and Tyler puts a hand on my shoulder. I look over at Dolph who is eyeing my skeptically as he disappears into the crowd.

A few hours later I find myself sitting against the wall with my knees pulled to my chest. I keep seeing flashes of the events in the hallway. All around me there is a murmur as people talk amongst themselves. Some people are talking about the news broadcast while others are complaining about being locked in the backstage area. Apparently right before Dolph pulled me through the door to safety there had been some soldiers who told everyone to stay put while they made sure the building was safe and there has been no sign of them since and some people are starting to get stir crazy. "This is crap." Whines Nikki for about the 100th time in the last five minutes. "I don't see why we can't just leave. It's been hours." She has a huge pout on her face. "That lad from da army said we had to stay here." Becky snaps back at her from her seat atop an equipment cart. Nikki huffs, "what does he know?" I roll my eyes unable to take the whining any longer. "Clearly not as much as you Nikki right?" I snap and she glares at me, "Excuse me?" "Well clearly you think you know more than someone whose job it is to keep our country safe. So by all means go out there. See for yourself whether or not it's safe." I gesture towards the locked door that leads to the hallway I had been trapped in. "Oh please." She huffs flipping her hair over shoulder, "I'm sure this is all people over reacting to nothing." I shake my head at her in disbelief at how naïve she is being. "Do you not watch the news? Did you not hear all the gunfire tonight?" She looks at me like I'm the idiot, "you can't honestly believe those reports about people coming back from the dead?" She laughs, "and people think I'm stupid." She laughs again smirking at me and I can't contain myself anymore as I jump up. "You are stupid. It's true. Everything they reported on the news tonight is true." She glares me, "if you believe that then you have no right to call me stupid." I look her dead in the eyes. "I've seen it. The dead coming back to life. Just on the other side of that door." I try to keep my voice from trembling as I admit what I saw. "Whatever. You are just trying to scare me." I open my mouth to argue back but Dolph beats me to it, "no. She is telling the truth. I saw it too. There were people that should clearly have been dead ripping a soldier to pieces." This seems to finally shut Nikki up and I shoot Dolph a glance to say thanks. I go back to my spot and sit down and see that Ravyn and Tyler are staring at me "Is that really what happened?" Tyler asks and I nod recounting the whole story up until the point where Dolph saved me. "Wow. So this really is bad." Ravyn muses.

After another couple of hours the doors open and a few solders walk in. Everyone jumps to their feet eager to hear what they have to say. "Okay everyone listen up. We have secured this building for the time being. I want you all to sit tight as we work out an evacuation plan. We only have a few vehicles at our disposal and a lot of civilians to get out of the city so it may take some time. I suggest for tonight you make yourselves at home, find a place to sleep and hopefully we will be back in the morning with a plan. I would not go outside. The streets are still overrun with the dead so it is very dangerous."

With that said the soldiers turn and walk away leaving us in a stunned silence. "Well…I guess we will just stay here then." Xavier Woods jokes breaking the silence and earning a few nervous laughs and grins. "I guess we should just all go find some places to camp out of the night. There are plenty of offices and locker rooms in this building so we might as well make the best of it." Cena announces standing up and taking Nikki's hand and walking away. Slowly people start to follow suit. I turn to Ravyn and Tyler "Do we follow?" Tyler asks. "You guys go ahead. I'm going to hang back for a bit. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight anyways. I'll find you in the morning." I turn and walk away before they can say anything. All I want to do is find a place to be alone but everywhere I look I see superstars and crew members. I spot the curtains leading to the stage and begin to make my way there when someone grabs my arm. "Hey, you okay?" It's Sami Zayn with Seth Rollins by his side, "yeah it sounds like you saw some real shit go down." I put on a fake smile, "I'm okay you guys. I just need to clear my head a bit. But thanks for the concern." I continue on to the curtain and poke my head through. Everything seems quiet. Maybe it really is safe. I make my way onto the stage and down the ramp. The lights around the stadium are off but our rigging lights are still on illuminating the ring. I climb the stairs and step through the ropes. Was it only a few hours ago that I was in this ring putting on a match? It feels like days ago. Who knows, that may have been my last match. I sit down in the middle of the ring with a sigh. I wonder what the future will hold now. I lie back and cross my arms under my head and stare up into the catwalk above me. I run the night's events through my head trying to make some ounce of sense out of them and trying to imagine the future in a world where the dead come back to life. But how do you make sense of that?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I must have dozed off in the ring because I wake with a start at the sound of someone saying my name. "Hey, sorry I didn't meant to scare you." I roll over and see Bayley kneeling next to me in the ring. "No…it's fine. What time is it?" I ask sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes and I realize that I have been covered with a blanket. "A little after 9. The soldiers are back with an evacuation plan." This grabs my attention and I immediately forget the blanket. "They are?" "Yeah, they want everyone backstage so they can tell us the plan." I stand up grabbing the blanket, "well we better not keep them waiting." Together we head up the ramp and back through the curtain where everyone is gathered.

I stand scanning the crowd for Ravyn and Tyler before finally spotting them in the middle of the group. I begin to slide my way through the crowd before being stopped by all three members of New Day standing together eating out of a box of Booty-O's. "JJ! You know you want some Booty-O's!" Big E says to me with a wiggle of his hips. I giggle, leave it to New Day to still be a bunch of goofs despite everything that is going on. Kofi holds the box out to me "they make sure you ain't booty." Woods possess with his thumbs up as I reach into the box and grab a handful of cereal, "thanks guys. You rock." They start dancing and chanting "New Day rocks." As I walk away and reach Ravyn's side. "There you are! Where have you been?" I tell her about my trip to the ring for some peace and quiet and how I must have fallen asleep down there. "You slept in the ring?" Tyler asks me with a raised eyebrow. "I hadn't planned on it. I think my adrenaline crashed and I passed out. Someone must have found me out there because I woke up covered by a blanket." I hold up the mystery blanket as a couple of soldiers walk to the front of the group and the room falls silent. "Ladies and gentlemen. We are going to have to beg for your patience during the evacuation process. Due to the situation at hand we only have one truck left to evacuate any survivors from the area to a safe zone we have set up a few hours away. We have received a roster of everyone who is in the building and with it have made a randomly generated list of the order in which you will be evacuated. If you hear your name please step into the hallway to your left and we will get you to the truck. Please don't bring any personal belongings so that we can fit as many of you in the truck as possible." He begins to read off names and one by one people leave. "Now the rest of you please hang tight. We are going to try and make two runs today and get as many of you out as we can. Again I urge you to stay in the building until we come back." The soldiers head down the hallway after the evacuees. Slowly those of us who were not picked disperse and try to find ways to kill time until they come back.

True to their word the soldiers come back and take another group but this time they tell us they won't be back till morning. They leave us some supplies, blankets and pillows to get us through the night. Since I already have a blanket I grab a pillow and make my way to the women's locker room where a bunch of the girls are sleeping. People in relationships have taken the smaller offices in order to have some privacy. The next morning the soldiers show up to take the third round of evacuees. Tyler's name was on the list of the third group but he gave up his spot not wanting to leave Ravyn behind. The soldiers say they will be back again in a few hours, but they never return. People begin to get restless as the hours tick by and they don't come back. "Why haven't they come back for us?" Nikki huffs from her place in John Cena's lap. "They said they would be back for us." I put my head in my hands and groan, wishing she would shut up. "They could still be coming…maybe they just got held up…" Bayley remarks and there is a huff from the other side of the room. "You are so naïve Bayley. They have never been late before. So why are they this time? Oh because they aren't coming." Charlotte says rudely to her. "This isn't fair. We shouldn't still be here!" Nikki wines again and my nerves can't take it anymore. "Nikki would you please shut the fuck up?" I stand up from my spot on the floor ready to put her in her place. "None of us are happy to still be here and your constant bitching and moaning isn't helping." I glare at her as she gives me the biggest bitch face ever, "I'm entitled to my opinion. There is a thing called freedom of speech." I sigh "I get that Nikki, really I do, but do you have to express it every five seconds? There is only so much of your voice I can stand." She jumps out of Cena's lap ready to lunge at me but Cena grabs her around the waist and I am grabbed on either arm by Dolph and Zack Ryder who had been standing nearby watching our exchange in amusement. "You have no right to talk to me like that!" Nikki spews trying to break free from Cena. "Hey you were the one that brought up freedom of speech. To use your words I am entitled to my opinion." I smirk at her as she seethes. "Yeah well at least I'm not some stupid farm girl from Kansas." I can't help but laugh, "wow, is that really your comeback? Yes I am from Kansas but newsflash Nikki not everyone in Kansas lived on a farm. What are you going to come at me with next? Call me Dorothy or some other Wizard of Oz reference? Trust me I have heard them all." The look in her eyes is one of pure evil, "well at least I have family out there that loves me and will be worried about me." I rip my arms from the grasp of Dolph and Zack and lunge at Nikki. I only get one strike in before Cena pulls her behind him and Dolph and Zack regain their hold on me. I try to fight free slinging curse words at Nikki as she laughs hiding behind Cena. "Would you calm down!" Zack tells me as they pull me away back over to where Ravyn and Tyler stand in a stunned silence. I'm breathing heavily and shaking with rage. The boys seem reluctant to let me go afraid I will go right back after Nikki. Slowly my breathing evens out and I semi relax. "You good now?" Dolph asks me and I nod still unable to speak and he slowly releases his grasp on my arm. Ravyn hugs me and I return the hug, "what a bitch." She says to me and I laugh. "Come on let's go find somewhere quiet to talk." We go to the room that she has been sharing with Tyler and sit on the couch. "You okay friend?" I nod. "Yeah. It just caught me off guard. How does she know about that anyways? There aren't very many people who know about my past." I wonder as Ravyn shrugs. "I don't know but that was a low blow. Even for her."

We talk for a while longer before going back to join the group. Nikki and Cena are nowhere to be seen and that is just fine by me. We wait long into the night in hopes that the soldiers really are going to come back but eventually people give up and go to bed. I'm still too pissed off to sleep so I wander around exploring the arena. I come upon a door that is marked 'cat walk'. I go through it and am met with a ladder. What the hell I think as I begin to climb. I reach top and before me lies a maze of platforms so I begin to walk before I reach a section that is right over the ring. I sit down and dangle my feet over the edge and lean onto the rail looking down at the ring below me. I allow myself to think about my past which is something I never do.

I don't know how long I've been sitting here when I'm startled by a noise to my left. I jerk my head in that direction and see Dolph standing there with his hands up in surrender. "Hey, it's just me. I didn't mean to scare you." I put my hand over my heart which is threatening to beat out of my chest. "Damnit Dolph!" I hiss, my heart rate slowing back down. "What the hell are you doing up here?" He slowly takes a few steps forward, "I could ask you the same thing. Can I sit?" he gestures to the spot next to me and I shrug "you came all the way up here you might as well." He sits down next to me and once he is settled I ask him again "so what are you doing up here?" He hesitates a moment, "to be honest with you…I saw you come up here. I've actually been waiting for you to come back but after more than an hour went by I decided to come up to see if you were okay…" He trails off and I can't help but smile, "so you followed me?" He actually looks embarrassed. "I didn't set out to follow you. I came around the corner and saw you disappear through the door." I glance sideways at him, "Okay…but why did you wait so long to come up?" "Well I didn't want to look like I followed you." I laugh, "well that didn't work too well did it?" He laughs too, "no. I failed epically." We sit in an awkward silence for a moment. "Honestly though…" he says breaking the silence, "are you okay? You really lost it with Nikki earlier." I stare at my hands for a moment before answering. "Yeah. I'm fine." I turn to look at Dolph who is staring at me with a raised eyebrow, "you are a horrible liar. Look I know we don't know each other all that well but if you have something you want to get off your chest you can talk to me." He seems genuinely concerned about me. "It's not something I like to talk about. There is only a handful of people I've ever told and Nikki Bella was certainly not one of them." I clench my fists the anger coming back to me just at the mention of her name. Dolph reaches over and takes my hand catching me completely off guard. "Look, Nikki is a first class bitch. Don't let her push your buttons too much." I sigh, "normally I don't care…but she made it really personal with something that she shouldn't even know about." I take a deep breath and look Dolph right in the eyes. "What she said…about me not having a family…it's true. I mean I have a family…they are out there somewhere I just haven't had contact any of them in over fifteen years. My mom split when I was ten and by the time I was thirteen my dad was in prison. I spent the next few years bouncing around the foster care system. The one constant thing in my life during those years was wrestling. When I turned sixteen and got my drivers license and a passport. Then as soon as I could I split and went to Canada so I could beg Lance Storm to teach my how to wrestle. That was where I met Ravyn and Tyler and the rest is history." He looks at me with sad eyes, "wow, I had no idea." "No one does. Ravyn and Tyler know obviously and a few people from legal know from when I filled out my paperwork to work here…it's just not something I like to talk to about." I run a hand through my hair feeling myself starting to get emotional which I really don't want to do. A single tear slides down my cheek and a curse quickly wiping it away with the hand not being held by Dolph. "I'm sorry…I don't usually get like this." Dolph lets go of my hand and swings is legs around so they are resting on the platform and he is facing me as a few more tears slide down my cheek. "Look," he says to me, "we are in a crap situation right now. The world has turn to shit and we are stuck in this building and you have had a huge personal secret thrown in your face. I think you are allowed a few tears. I won't tell anyone. Especially Nikki." He grins at me and I smile back through the tears. He opens his arms up, "come here." I hesitate for a moment before allowing myself to go into his arms.

I pull back a few moments later. Thanks." I say to him and he nods, "don't mention it." I don't know what to say now. "I uh…think I am going to go to bed now, but really…thanks for this." I stand up and he does too. "If you ever want to talk or a shoulder to cry on," he winks at me to let me know he is joking about the last part, "just come find me." "I will. Thanks." Together we head back down the catwalk and down the ladder. I start to head back to the women's locker room but he stops me, "oh hey, I hope that blanket keeps you warm." He grins at my sheepishly. "You were the one that brought me the blanket?" He nods before giving me a wave and heading off to the men's locker room. I make it back to the women's locker room and head in quietly so I don't wake anyone. I find the spot I had set up for myself to sleep and lay down. As I pull the blanket up over my shoulders I can't help by smile as I drift off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The days turn into weeks and we've given up any hope of the soldiers coming back and have settled into a routine of life in the arena. Food isn't an issue so far because of all the food we had from the catering crew. We are also lucky to have power and heat because winter is beginning to set it. Everyone keeps to their groups of friends but even in a place this big people begin to get cabin fever and with the amount of egos we have stuck in this building there is at least one argument and near fight every day. I don't even want to think about how volatile things would get if we were low on supplies. I do my best to stay far away from Nikki wanting to avoid another blow up with her.

The cabin fever can be chalked up to us being a group of people who are used to being constantly on the go all year and having all that just coming to a screeching halt. Finding ways to keep ourselves entertained is a daily struggle. Then someone has the idea to have a wrestling tournament. We set up a bracket for the men and one for the women and have a match a day. It at least keeps us entertained for a couple of weeks.

The final match of the women's bracket pits me against Ravyn. I lace up my boots giddy for this match. Although she is my best friend I love locking up with her in the ring. Having trained together, spent all of these years in the indies, then WWE's developmental system and then finally on the main roster together we have learned to put on a flawless match. I stand up once my boots are laced and head to the door of the locker room and yank it open and run smack into Dolph Ziggler who looked to be about to knock on the door. "You look happy." He says noting the huge grin on my face. "I can't wait to get in the ring! I haven't worked with Ravyn in a long time. We used to put on great matches back in our indy days. We got reigned in a bit since we got to NXT so I'm excited to have a match with no limitations again." I am practically skipping down the hallway as Dolph laughs at me, "well good luck out there." He says and I smile at him. Ever since that night on the catwalk Dolph and I have been getting closer. We meet up on the catwalk every night and just talk late into the night. Despite myself I think I am actually falling for him. When I go back to the women's locker after our talks I always fall asleep with a smile on my face with images of blue eyes in my head.

We walk out to the ring together to find a small crowd gathered to watch. I spot Ravyn and run over to her bouncing with giddiness. "You ready to do this friend?" She asks me and I nod "you know it! I want to have a match like we used to be before we got here. What do you say? A crazy match for old times sake? There is no one here to hold us back anymore." She grins "Yes! It has been way too long! Let's do this!" We climb in the ring and Bayley rings the bell. We lock up and go through a series of trying to lock up but whenever one of us gets the upper hand the other immediately counters so that we are just a blur. Finally she gets the upper hand on me and throws me into the ropes and then hits me with a spin kick. I go down and she goes for the quick cover but I kick out at one. Ravyn goes back on the attack throwing me out of the ring. As I struggle to get back to my feet she climbs to the top of the barricade and the moment I'm back to my feet she leaps off hitting me with a 450 splash earning a chorus of "oooohs" from our audience followed up by a "holy shit" chant. Slowly we both get to our feet and Ravyn tosses me back into the ring breaking the 10 count of our ref Zack Ryder.

She keeps the upper hand on me until I hit her with a hurricanarana out of nowhere. She pops right back up and I hit her with a drop kick. It takes her a little longer to recover and just as she is climbing to her feet I run from one corner to the other and scale the ropes to hit a whisper in the wind. Just as I make to the top rope the arena plunges into darkness. I'm carrying so much momentum that I can't stop myself so I go right over the ring post and slam onto the floor completely knocking the wind out of me. "What the hell happened?" Someone yells out as I grope blindly around me trying to get my breath back as a fire burns in my ribs. I find the barricade and pull myself towards it and prop myself up gasping for breath. "J?! You okay!?" Ravyn calls out but all I can do is cough for an answer my eyes watering. There is a shuffling sound to my left and then there is a hand on my shoulder and another one is cupping my cheek. "Just try to take a slow deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth." Dolph coaches me and I try his advice but it hurts too much. I keep doing his breathing technique and while it still hurts I at least don't feel like I am dying anymore. "You doing better?" he asks me quietly as my breathing becomes a bit more normalized and I nod. "I think she is okay!" He yells to Ravyn. "She got the wind knocked out of her." Ravyn manages to find us in the dark but then a soft bank of lights kicks on allowing us to see. Dolph quickly removes his hand from my cheek but keeps one on my arm. "Come on let's go have Doc take a look at you." Ravyn says and I try to stand up by am stopped by a sharp pain in my right side. "I think I may have bruised a rib." I gasp as the pain radiates through my rib cage. Between her, Dolph and Tyler we manage to get me up off the floor and we slowly head towards the back.

Everyone behind the curtain is in a panic due the blackout. The same soft glow of emergency lights now fills the backstage area. "The power grids must have gone down…"Chris Jericho remarks, "luckily this building seems to have some sort of emergency backup. We at least have lights…" He just seems to be rambling to himself. Doc Amann appears having been hunted down by Tyler. "I knew it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt." He jokes at me, "hey…I didn't turn the lights out." I quip back breathlessly. "Think you can make it to the trainer's room?" I nod and he leads the way as Ravyn and Tyler stand on either side of me but Dolph stays behind.

In the trainer's room they help me up on the table and I tell Doc what happened as he pokes and prods at my ribs. I wince at a particularly sore spot on my right side. "Without an x-ray I have no idea if they are fractured, broken or just bruised. I'm going to say bruised because you don't seem to be in enough pain for them to be broken. You're just going to have to take it easy. I'll give you some pain meds…" I shake my head "No. You know I don't like pain meds Doc." I tell him. Doc looks at me like I am crazy "this is a lot more painful than the sprained ankles and other things I've treated you for." I shake my head determined not to break down. "No. I'll just suffer through. It's not like I have to work or travel right now. I have nothing but time to rest." He shrugs "fine, have it your way." He hands me a bottle of Advil and some heat patches.

We leave the trainer's room and head back to the women's locker room and get me settled. "Too bad there aren't any cots or something. Sleeping on the floor is going to hurt friend…" Ravyn says as I lay there in agony. "I could be sleeping on a cloud and it would still hurt. I'm going to go crazy having to lay around like this." I can't help but whine shifting uncomfortably as I realize I am still in my gear and I groan. "Shit…I forgot to change out of my gear. Help me back up?" I plead to Ravyn and slowly I sit back up. I change into a t-shirt, some work out pants and a zip up hoodie. Ravyn helps me stick on one of the heat patches on. "Okay…the idea of laying back down is too brutal. Let's just go hang in the catering area."

We slowly make our way to the catering area which has become the common area of our arena home. Some people are throwing theories around about why we are all of a sudden we are without power. The most agreed upon theory is that there was no one left out to there to maintain the power plants so everything just went out. That idea freaks me out. How could there be no one left? Surely there are still tons of survivors out there. None of us have set foot outside since Z-Day so we are clueless to what is going on in the outside world. I turn to Ravyn, "do you think that's true? That most people are dead? Or turned into those creatures?" She stares straight ahead "honestly J…I don't know what to think. This whole fucked up situation is just way too much to process. A month ago we were traveling the country living our dreams and now? Now we haven't even been outside this building. There are dead people walking around…" she shakes her head, "the fact that those soldiers never came back for us makes me think the worst. If the military was overwhelmed then things can't be good." There really isn't much else to say. "Want to go sit?" She asks changing the subject. I shake my head, "no I'm good here." She puts a hand on my shoulder gently, "want me to bring you some food?" I look at her helplessly, "would you?" she laughs and nods before walking off to go make us each a plate of food. I lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes. "What did Doc say?' I turn my head to see Dolph leaning against the wall next to me. "Probably just bruised. He can't be sure without an x-ray though." I shift my weight and wince at the pain is cause me. "Is the pain bad? Didn't Doc give you anything?" He asks. "Oh, it hurts like a son of a bitch. I don't take pain meds though. Not with my family history." Dolph's eyes grow wide. "Shit. You haven't taken anything?" "No. I'm afraid of becoming addicted. I don't want to become my dad." I admit to him. "Hey, you don't know that that will happen." I shake my head, "I could never risk it. Especially after I made it here. Luckily I've never been hurt too bad…a few sprains, couple dislocations…but this…this is horrible." I laugh a little at how I pathetic I sound but immediately stop "ow, fuck." Dolph looks at my sympathetically. "So how come you aren't resting?" "I tried…I got myself painfully situated but then realized I was still in my gear so I got painfully back up to change but then I didn't want to have lay back down on the floor again." "The floor what are you doing sleeping on the floor?" He asks actually sounding concerned. "That's the only choice of where to sleep in the locker room." I tell him "how come you didn't grab a room as they opened up during the evacuations?" I shrug "at the time I'll admit I was too freaked out to have a room to myself…it was all still too new and all those things that happened in the hallway…" I don't need to finish my sentence. "Well tonight you can take my room. I'll go bunk with Broski." I shake my head at him, "no, really I'll be okay." He puts a hand up to stop me, "no, I insist. You are hurt it's the least I can do." At this moment Ravyn comes up with a plate of food for me. "Insist on what?" she asks handing me the plate. "I was insisting that she take my room while she recovers. The couch in there has to be better than the floor." I start to argue again but Dolph just ignores me until I finally give in.

I eat the food Ravyn brought me while everyone chats. I look around the room surveying the crowd. A group sitting off in one corner huddled together catches my attention. "What is The Club up to?" I ask referring to AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Everyone follows my gaze. "They want to leave." Tyler tells us. "What? They do?" I ask surprised and Tyler nods. "They are worried about their wives and kids. They want to go home to them." I look over at the group sadly "Do they have a plan yet?" Tyler shrugs not having an answer.

People slowly begin to file out of the room heading off to bed. "You sure you really want to give up your room to me?" I ask one more time still feeling guilty about the situation. "Yes. Now quit worrying about it." Ravyn smirks at me over Dolph's shoulder. "Well friend. I think Tyler and I are going to go to bed. You take it easy." I roll my eyes at her, "Yes mom." I sass her as they leave leaving Dolph and I alone. "You uh…ready to go too?" he asks and I shrug, "I guess. It's not like I can do anything else in this state. Let me just stop off at the locker room and grab my stuff." We head off to the locker so I can grab my things before Dolph leads me to the room he has been sleeping in. He grabs his pillow and blanket off the couch and replaces them with mine. I take a couple of Advil and then go to take off my jacket. I slowly start to work my arms out of the sleeves my face etched with pain. "Here. Let me help." Dolph comes up behind me and helps slide the jacket off. "Thanks." I slowly lower myself onto the couch with his assistance and lay down on my left side. He covers me with the blanket and waits for me to get settled. "How's that?" he asks and I smile sheepishly "better than the floor you were right." He laughs "I'll try not to let it go to my head. Good night." He heads towards the door, turning out the lights before reaching for the handle. Just as he is about to turn the handle I stop him, wanting to ask him something that has been nagging at me. "Hey Dolph…can I ask you a question?" He turns away from the door and walks back over to the couch. "Sure, what's up?" I bite my lip nervously looking at his silhouette in the darkness "you okay?" he asks when I've been silent for a while. I let out a breath, "how come you have been so nice to me since all this began? I hardly knew you before this. We've only ever exchanged polite greetings to each other in passing…but now…we've really connected. Hell you saved my life and I've told you things I've only told a few other people." I ramble nervously. "Ahh…well…" he sits down on the floor and leans back against the couch by my head. "As far as saving your life…that was all just about timing. I was caught in a sea of people being shoved backstage after the shooting started. I ended up by the door and could hear all the gunfire going on behind it. Then I realized Ravyn was yelling about you being locked behind the door. So I opened it and got you out. As far as everything else….I don't know. I was sort of keeping an eye on you after seeing what happened in that hallway…you seemed to be handling it a little too well. I watched you go out to the ring and you seemed a bit on edge. The army had left some blankets so I was going to bring you one in case you were in shock or something but I found you asleep so I just covered you up and let you be. Then you lashed out at Nikki which surprised me. You always seemed so quiet so figured something must have really been bothering you. I saw you going up the catwalk and again decided I would check on you. We had our first talk that night and have talked every night since then and over that time…" he pauses running a hand down his face. "I guess over that time I've maybe I dunno…started to have feelings for you." A smile spreads across my face. I reach a hand out and after a slight hesitation he takes it. "I feel the same way." I admit to him. He turns to look at me. "Really?" he sounds relieved. I nod and he squeezes my hand before placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. We talk late into the night like we always do before falling asleep hand in hand.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

I can't recall a time when I have been happier which is ironic seeing as I am now living in a world where civilization as we know it is gone. It has now been three months since Z-Day, but for the past two months I have been enjoying an amazing romance. I feel like a teenager with her first real boyfriend. Dolph and I came to the decision to keep our new relationship a secret considering everything else that is going on. I find it hard to not break into a huge grin every time I catch his eye from across a room though. We try to sneak off every chance we get but we always know that once everyone goes to bed that we can always find each other up on the catwalk.

Life at the arena has become a lot more dire since the power went out. After a couple of days we began losing our backup power as the generators ran out of gas. This led to our first excursion outside. A small group of us went out to the secure parking area where we all parked our rental cars and where the semis and buses parked for shows, which luckily for us is where the generators were located. Someone managed to figure out how to work them and keep them running by siphoning gas out of the cars. However this doesn't last long and soon we again find ourselves with no power at all except lights which seem to be on a different power source. With the loss of power heat and food becomes a problem. We no longer have fridges to keep food from spoiling so our food source has diminished greatly and with winter coming it is starting to get colder each night in the arena.

We decide that we can longer avoid the inevitable. We have to venture out of our safe zone and go hunt down supplies. We sit around the common area making a list of things we need. Jericho is in charge of writing everything down as we rattle off ideas. "Soap, shampoo, conditioner deodorant things like that…" I tell him and he clicks his pen, "personal hygiene products….you just made the list!" I laugh but stop as a dull ache returns to my ribs. My bruised ribs were significantly better but a sudden movement or apparently hard laughter would send a wave of fire through them.

We add items like blankets and cold weather clothing to Jericho's list. The blankets the army left us are not going to be good enough once winter really sets in. After we finish the list the next thing to do is decide who is going to go on the run. John Cena who has appointed himself our leader is the first to volunteer which greatly upsets Nikki. The rest of the group is Sheamus, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson Zack Ryder and to my horror Dolph. I can't even look at him for fear of saying something I shouldn't. "Hey…don't you guys think a girl should go on this run too? You know…to pick up feminine products?" Charlotte points out. "You volunteering?" Cena asks "Oh hell no. I'm not going out there." I roll my eyes. "I'll go." I say, not looking at Dolph. "No." Cena states simply and I look at him in surprise. "Why not?" "Your ribs are still hurt right?" I narrow my eyes at him "my ribs are fine." I lie. "I saw you when you went to laugh at Jericho. You are not 100% and I won't take anyone who might pose a threat to this group and the mission." I bite back a response and just walk away.

I pace the hallway pissed off. How dare Cena tell me that I would be a threat to the mission. Who the fuck does he think he is? And Dolph…what is he doing volunteering to go on this run? "Friend?" I whirl around in my rage I hadn't heard Ravyn come up behind me. "You okay?" she asks me. "No." I fume. "Cena is an ass." I complain, leaving the Dolph part out of it because even though she is my best friend even Ravyn doesn't know about our relationship. "Yeah well I'm glad he is. I didn't want you to go out there. We don't know enough about how it is out there." Her words echo exactly why I am angry that Dolph is going. "Well you don't have to worry about me." I try to smile but it is forced. She links her arm through mine, "come on let's go back see what the plan is." I groan as she drags me back to the catering area. I stick to the outskirts of the group intent to just listen. They discuss when they will leave, what they will use to carry supplies back to the arena and then the topic turns to defense. "Clearly we have no weapons or any idea how to take them down, even if we did." Cena muses and images of the hallway flash before my eyes. "Headshots." I say out loud not even realizing I had said it until I see everyone looking at me. "Did you say something over there good sister?" Gallows asks and I clear my throat. "The only way to kill them is with a headshot of some sort." Everyone just continues to stare at me "and how the fuck do you know that?" Anderson asks. "A soldier told me. The same soldier I watched get his flesh ripped off by these creatures. Ya'll seem to forget that I am the only one to have seen these things up close and personal." I direct these last words to Cena but he is ignoring me. "Ok…so we need to find some things we can use to make weapons. Everyone split up and see what you can find and bring them back here." I shake my head in disbelief at the way he just bosses everyone around.

I go join Ravyn and Tyler as we wander around looking for anything that can be made into a weapon. Tyler stops by a door, "has anyone explored down here yet?" he points to the label by the door that is marked 'basement'. I shrug, "I don't think so…" he opens the door and it is pitch black. "The emergency power must not work down there…." Tyler holds up a finger telling us to wait a minute before running off leaving us standing there confused. "Don't look at me. He's your boyfriend." A few minutes later he returns with a couple of flashlights. "Where did you get those?" I ask taking one from him. "I swiped them from some cars when we were siphoning gas for the generators." Ravyn grins at him. "Well look at you being all clever." Tyler grins back at her wrapping his arms around her. "Oh? I'm clever am I?" he leans down and kisses her and it turns into a very passionate moment that doesn't look to be ending anytime soon. I roll my eyes but I also have a smile on my face. I am glad to see my best friend so happy, especially now.

I click on my flashlight and head down the stairs. The basement is a massive maze of darkness. I wave the flashlight around scanning the area. So far all I can see is items that are useless to us, paint and other maintenance supplies. Then I find the materials used to turn this place into whatever sports venue they need it to be, there is the basketball court for the Celtics and the hockey walls for the Bruins. I keep walking further and further into the catacombs of the building hoping to at least find one useful thing down here. I reach a hallway of doors and just start randomly opening them. The first few are a bust but then I open one that has some promise. It filled with lanterns and flashlights as well as tons of batteries. I leave that door open and move on to the next and find camping stoves, "well this is beginning to look promising." I say out loud. Then there is a beam of light shining in my eyes "What's promising?" I jump at the sound of Dolph's voice. "Damnit Dolph! You scared the shit out of me. What the hell are you doing down here?" I ask moving on to the next door. "I was looking for you when I found Ravyn and Tyler who were a bit preoccupied so I offered to come down here and help you."

I keep walking and opening doors giving Dolph the cold shoulder. "So what have you found?" he asks coming closer to me. I shrug, "supplies." I open the next door a little more forcefully then I meant to and it almost hits Dolph. "Whoa. What the hell is wrong with you? Are you still pissed about Cena?" I don't answer but just move on to the next door but he grabs my arm, "hey!" he says turning me around so I am forced to look at him. "Are you pissed at me?" He asks in disbelief and I just stare at him with a glare that answers his question. "What did I do?" He asks me confused. I look him dead in the eye, "Why are you going on the run?" Even though I am mad at him my voice is laced with worry. "That's what this is about? I'm going on the run so I can do something to help out the group." I bite my lower lip, "and what if I said I didn't want you to go?" He sighs, "I can't back out now. How would that look?" Now I am angry again. "So you would rather save face and go out there where you could die?" "It's not about saving face…they needed people to go on the run so I am going. Sure we don't know what's out there but it's time to start taking chances if we want to survive." He is starting to sound mad now. "I get that…but why does it have to be you? And why wouldn't you at least talk to me first?" I question him. "I wasn't aware that I needed your permission. Besides, were you going to talk to me before you volunteered?" My eyes grow wide, "are you seriously fucking getting on me for doing the exact same thing you did?" I stare daggers into him. "Yeah but you…" I stop him, "If you are about to say I'm a girl you can just stop right there." I turn away and open the next door, and find probably the best thing yet. In this closet are stacks of rolled mattresses. "Look…I didn't mean you shouldn't go because you are a girl. Only that for me, I didn't want you to go because you are MY girl and I would be too freaked out and distracted worrying about you if you were out there with me that I wouldn't be able to focus." I grab one of the mattresses out of the closet and turn to him. "You are the second person to tell me I would be a danger to the group today. It pissed me off when Cena said it, but coming from you…that just hurts." I walk away and back up the stairs. Ravyn and Tyler are still there when I come up. "Hey! Find anything good?" I try to swallow my anger and act normal. "Yeah. Lots of useful stuff. I think they had this place rigged to be an emergency shelter. There are lanterns and camping stoves down there and even mattresses." Tyler grins like a fool, "no more sleeping on the floor? Excellent!" I put on a fake smile. "I was going to go grab everyone to help haul the supplies up. "

Over the next couple of hours we work to clear the supplies we need from the basement. I avoid Dolph by keeping close to other groups of my friends. After we decide we have enough supplies for the time being a group goes back to making weapons for the run tomorrow. I escape back to the women's locker room to lay out a mattress for myself and am disappointed when this doesn't take up more time. I go sit in one of the lockers trying to think of something else to do in order to keep my mind busy. I spot some of the lockers full of stuff left behind from those that got evacuated and notice a couple of backpacks. I empty the backpacks then I take the bags back to the catering area. I stand in the door way and spy Seth Rollins standing at the outskirts of the group. He looks over at me as I approach him. "Hey there. Watchya doin?" He asks me. "I found some backpacks in the women's locker room. I figured they could use them for supplies." He nods at me, "smart thinking. So you're really pissed about not going out there?" I sigh, "I'm more pissed about how I was told that I can't go out there. Like I'm this little delicate doll that is broken and needs protecting." He smirks, "yeah, well after seeing you go off on Nikki clearly you are a badass that can take care of herself." He says to me with a wink earning him an elbow to the ribs. "Oh shut up. If l leave these here will you make sure they get them?" He nods, "of course." I set the bags down next to him, "thanks Seth."

I wander the halls not knowing what to do with myself. I crawl up onto an equipment cart and just sit. After some time there are voices from the down the hall as the group from the catering area comes towards me. Dolph spots me and hangs back as the group goes their separate ways. When everyone is gone Dolph comes over and leans against the cart I am sitting on. "You uh…you still pissed at me?" I don't say anything. "Come on. You're being ridiculous over the fact that I don't want to see you get hurt." I keep ignoring him, staring straight ahead and he sighs. "Whatever." He huffs before walking away.

Hours later I find myself laying in the women's locker room staring at the ceiling. I can't stop thinking about the what ifs of tomorrow. What if something happens and Dolph doesn't come back and I spend the last night we have mad at him? This scares the hell out of me. What if he doesn't come back? I close my eyes and sigh before throwing off my blanket and standing up. I quietly sneak out of the locker room.

I make my way to Dolph's room and hesitate outside his door for a moment. I open it slowly and peek inside. He is asleep on the floor so I slip inside the room closing the door quietly behind me. I tip toe over to him and kneel down next to him. He is facing me and there looks to be just enough room on his mattress for me. I slowly start pulling up the edge of his blanket and start to crawl underneath it. Dolph wakes with a start until he realizes it's me. "What are you doing?" He asks groggily as I lay down facing him. He looks at me confused, his long blonde hair messy from sleep. I brush a few strands from his face, "I don't want to be mad at you. I started thinking of all the bad things that could happen tomorrow and started to hate myself for being mad. The thought of you not coming back…" I'm rambling and Dolph puts a hand on my cheek. "Hey. Don't think like that. Everything will be fine." I shake my head, "you don't know that." Despite myself a tear slides down my cheek. "Hey…" Dolph says softly wiping the tear away. "Come here." He pulls me close and I bury my face into his chest as he wraps his arms around me. "Don't think about the negative things right now. Let's just focus on right now." I pull back from his chest and touch my forehead against his and stare into his crystal blue eyes. "I love you." I say to him for this first time since this relationship began. A smile spreads across his face. "I love you too." We share a passionate kiss which continues to grow more intense.

I slowly wake up to find myself entwined in Dolph's arms. I smile watching him sleep. Our peace is interrupted by a quick knock on the door and to my horror it starts to open. I try to hide under the blankets as Dolph wakes up at the sound of the knock. "Hey Zigs…" oh god it's Zack. "Cena wants everyone to…" he trails off noticing that Dolph is not alone "oh hey…sorry Bro…" he laughs as I bury my face into Dolph's chest completely embarrassed. "I'll be there in a sec alright Kid?" Dolph tells Zack as Zack starts to leave, "hey Kid!" Dolph calls after him, "please don't tell anyone about this." Dolph pleads with his best friend. "Of course Bro."

After Zack leaves we both look at each other and laugh. "Well I guess we have been found out." Dolph jokes. "Yeah. It also sounds like Cena is ready to get this show on the road." I say my gut twisting with nerves. "Hey…positive thoughts." He tells me as we get up and get dressed. We decide to say our goodbyes in here where we can have some privacy. I stand on my tip toes and wrap my arms around his neck and hold on for dear life. "I'll be back before you know it." He murmurs into my hair. "You promise?" I ask hopefully. "I promise, and I say when I get back we go public." I pull back from the hug. "I think that it's time to yeah." We share one last kiss before he leaves the room. I wait a few minutes before following.

The group leaves on the run taking empty equipment carts that they hope to bring back filled with supplies. Their hope is to be back before nightfall but they have the backpacks I found filled with supplies just in case they have to stay out there all night. Those of us that are left fill the hours continuing to scour the arena. I decide to join up with The New Day knowing that they will be the best group to be around in order to keep my mind occupied.

As we wander Xavier Woods stops dead in his tracks his eyes wide. "Guys…we are all idiots." I look at him wondering what the hell he is talking about. "What do you mean Woods?" Kofi asks him. "Okay…so for that past three months we have been only wearing the clothes we had in our bags right? Using the showers to wash our clothes. Why have we been doing that when out there in that arena are merch booths full of clothes?!" we all agree with him that we are idiots for not thinking of this sooner.

We spend the next several hours hauling box upon box from the merch booths to the backstage area. As we are bringing the last loud through the curtains I am talking to Kofi when Big E shouts "Hey look! They are back!" I break into a huge grin setting down my box and looking through the crowd that is gathered but then my heart skips a beat as I notice something is horribly wrong.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The group standing before me looks shaken. They are dirty, covered in sweat and blood. Most notably though is that they are two people light. Dolph and Cena are not with the group. I look around, my heart pounding to make sure they aren't somewhere else in the room and I'm just not seeing them. As I scan the room I lock eyes with Zack and I realize just how pale and shaken he is. He looks me dead in the eye and just shakes his head sadly and in that moment I know. Dolph isn't coming back. There is a wail and a for a moment I think it's me but I look and see Nikki being held up by Sheamus as she is told that Cena isn't coming back either.

I feel numb as I stand there in shock. I look back and see Zack coming towards me. I shake my head at him and walk way. Once I am away from the group I take off at a run and go straight for the door that leads to the cat walk ladder. I make it to the top of the ladder just as the tears come. I stumble down the catwalk to the spot where Dolph and I would sit and talk. I'm finding it hard to breathe through the tears and his voice pops into my head from the day I hurt my ribs as he coached me through my breathing "in through the nose out through the mouth." I curl up on the cold steel of the catwalk and cry until I can't cry anymore.

Once I'm all cried out my mind wanders back to last night. I feel a slight sense of relief knowing we had that last night and together and that I had told him that I loved him this morning. I don't think I have ever said those words out loud to anyone before, and he had said it back to me. I don't even think my own parents with all their issues had even uttered those words to me, but now he is gone and suddenly this dark world feels a lot darker.

I don't know how long I am up on the catwalk before I force myself to head back down to rejoin the group. I find most of the group sitting in silence sorting through the supplies that were brought back from the run. I look around the room I spot Ravyn sitting at a table with Tyler, Bayley, Becky and Finn. I make the decision to avoid my best friend knowing that she will immediately see right through me and know that something is wrong. I quickly turn to leave the room before she spots me, the idea of being with the group is too much. As I turn I run smack into Fandango. "Hey, where have you been hiding?" he asks me quietly. "I haven't been hiding." I lie. "I've just been exploring." Fandango eyes me skeptically. "You've heard what happened though right? About Dolph and Cena?" my heart skips a beat at the mention of Dolph. "I haven't heard the details…but I know they didn't come back." I hope my voice doesn't show the emotions I'm feeling. "Some of the guys are saying they are going to go back out tomorrow. Dolph and Cena had a cart full of supplies that is still out there." This surprises me after what happened but we really need the supplies so at the same time it make sense. "How is Nikki?" I ask needing to change the subject. "She is pretty devastated. Renee and some of the other girls are with her." I nod having no idea what to say next. "Are you okay?" he asks me. "I'm just sad we lost people." "You sure that's all? You're looking as pale as your friend over there." He jokes nodding his head towards Ravyn and I put on a fake smile. "Maybe I just need some air. I think I'll head out to the garage for a bit." I walk around him and hurry towards the exit to the garage, this massive arena suddenly feels very tiny.

I walk out the doors and see that I'm not the only one out here. Sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of one of the loading docks is Zack. I hesitate a moment before going over and sitting next to him. He glances at me and I can tell he has been crying too. He looks about as lost as I feel having watched his best friend die. I reach out and take his hand, "what happened?" I whisper not really sure if I want to know the answer. "I'm not exactly sure." He says staring straight ahead. "We had split up into three groups, Gallows and Anderson paired together, Zigs was with Cena and I was with Sheamus. We headed off in different directions hitting some shops on a block that looked like it hadn't even been touched since before all this happened. Things were going great. We were filling our carts full of supplies. Sheamus and I headed outside to start meeting up with the others. There were no dead ones in sight as we met up with Gallows and Anderson and kept heading up the street to find Zigs and Cena. There was a crash up the street and there was Cena and Zigs and a horde of creatures." He stops, closing his eyes and letting out a breath. "There was so many of them. We tried to get there, fighting our way through them as they came towards us…we saw Cena go down and Zigs…he was just swallowed up by the horde." A tear slides down his cheek and I tighten my hold on his hand tears sliding down my cheeks as well. "I didn't see what happened to him…one moment he was there fighting them off and the next moment he was gone. There is no way he could have escaped though." He lets out a shaky breath before turning to look at me. "You hanging in there?" he asks and I shake my head looking down at my hands. "I feel numb. I think I'm still a bit in denial." "You made him happy." Zack says after a pause. "I wasn't sure what was going on with him but I could tell he was happy which was odd given the current situation we are in." I smile slightly, "he made me happy too." I admit. Zack puts an arm around my shoulder and we stay outside for a long time just sitting and silently supporting each other before we go our separate ways and head to bed. I try to go to sleep in the women's locker room but I cannot fall asleep. I abandon the women's locker room and make my way to Dolph's room and curl up on his couch.

I keep to myself for much for the next morning by hiding out in an empty room and sorting through the boxes of merchandise that New Day and I had scavenged the day before. I toss aside items that won't be useful like sweat bands and dog tags and keeping the clothing. I pull the next box towards me and open the flaps, my breath catches as I look at a box full of Dolph's shirts. I quickly close the box back up and push it away from me taking a few deep breaths in order to calm myself. I decide to take a break and get up and walk away from the boxes.

I round the corner leading to the catering area and stop when I see our whole group gathered in the hallway. I crane my neck trying to see what is going on at the center of the group but all I can see is Zack's back. Then Zack steps aside and I gasp, my hand flying to my mouth. There standing in the center of the group looking a little worse for wear but alive is Dolph. He has a trail of dried blood trailing down from his temple, his clothes are covered in sweat and blood but he is here. He turns his gaze slightly and spots me at the back of the crowd and a slight smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.

I shove my way through the crowd and throw my arms around his neck and bury my face into his neck. He wraps an arm around my waist and rests his head on top of mine. I hang on for dear life afraid that if I let go he will disappear and this will all have been a dream. I can't stop muttering "you're alive" over and over again. I finally force myself to pull away but only slightly as I look into his eyes and can't help the huge grin that spreads across my face as I tuck myself into his side not wanting to relinquish any sort of physical contact with him. He wraps an arm around my waist as he shakes people's hands. I catch Ravyn's eye and see her looking at me with a raised eyebrow and I look that says 'we will talk about this later.' Doc Amann comes up through the crowd and checks out the wound on Dolph's temple, "that is going to need stitches. Do you have any other injuries?" Dolph shakes his head but winces, "just a killer headache." Doc tells us to follow him to the trainer's room so do, escaping the crowd.

In the trainer's room Dolph sits up on the table as Doc hands me a wet rag, "can you clean all the dried blood off while I get everything set up?" I work at cleaning him up and as I get close the wound he hisses in pain and pulls away, "sorry!" I apologize quickly. "It's okay. It's just a little tender." He assures me taking my hand. Doc comes back with a tray of supplies, "okay go ahead and lay back." Dolph lays back and I stand at his side holding his hand as Doc sets to work sterilizing the wound. "Okay, I know you are an old pro at this by now, but here comes to the worst part." He picks up the syringe of lidocaine for numbing the wound. "Just get it over with it." Dolph says squeezing my hand a bit tighter as Doc injects the wound in several spots numbing them. I trace small circles in the back of Dolph's hand with my thumb while Doc gives him ten stitches.

Doc finishes up his work and takes off his gloves. "Okay man. You are good to go." Dolph starts to sit up but stops himself having a dizzy spell. I catch him helping to support him. "You dizzy?" Doc asks getting out his pen light and shining it in Dolph's eyes. "Maybe a little." Dolph admits squinting at the bright light. "How long you been dizzy?" "Ever since I came to this morning." He answers. "So you got knocked out?" Doc asks turning off the light. Dolph doesn't answer but the look on his face says it all. "So you lost consciousness, have a headache and dizzy spells. Sounds like a concussion to me." Dolph shrugs, "something else I am an old pro at. I sort of figured as much." He admits. "I want you to take it easy for as long as you have symptoms, come see me if they get worse. You know the drill. I take it you will be keeping an eye on him?" Doc asks me with a smirk and I nod. "Of course I will."

We slowly help Dolph get off the table and with him leaning heavily on me I get us back to his room. We settle in on the couch and I'm still keeping a tight hold on his hand. "I can't believe you are here." I tell him and he smiles at me. "I promised I would be back didn't I?" he teases me. "You did, but did you have to take so long? I had to live with the fact that I would never see you again…." my voice cracks with emotion. "What happened to you out there?" Dolph is quiet for a moment "I don't remember everything…Cena and I were in a camping store gathering sleeping bags and other supplies for winter…the whole run had been very smooth, probably too smooth. Cena wanted to check the shop next store, I don't even remember what it was…the windows had shades drawn so we couldn't see inside. When he opened the door…inside…well inside was a flood of creatures and they just came spilling out. They swarmed us as we tried to fight them off. Everything after that is a bit of a blur…I just remember hacking at the creatures trying to create some space to get away but I was being forced backwards towards the cart which still had the lid open…I fell back and I think I hit my head on the latch of the cart and that's the last thing I remember. I woke up inside the cart with a pounding headache and the lid shut." He closes his eyes and tilts his head back with a sigh pressing his palms into his eyes. "Head hurt?" I ask him concerned. "Yeah. A lot actually." I pout. "Want me to go get Doc?" I offer starting to stand up but he grabs my hand. "No. Just stay here." He moves to lay down on his side placing his head in my lap. I smile and brush his hair back from his face being careful of his stitches. "Hey…" he murmurs sleepily, "I love you." My face hurts from how much I am smiling now. "I love you too. Thanks for coming back to me." he pats my knee lazily and drifts off to sleep.

I stay there with him for a long time while he sleeps but then my stomach starts to growl and I remember that I haven't eaten anything since yesterday. I carefully get up so as not to wake Dolph. I grab the blanket off the mattress and cover him up before sneaking out of the room and heading to the catering area. I grab some food and go sit at a table with Ravyn, Tyler, Fandango, Becky, Bayley and Finn. I glance sideway at Ravyn my fork halfway to my mouth to catch her staring at me with a raised eyebrow. "What?" I ask with a sly grin knowing exactly why she is staring at me. "Oh nothing…I was just wondering when you were going to tell me, your best friend, about why you latched on to Ziggler like there was no tomorrow?" I smile like a fool, "because I was relieved that my boyfriend wasn't actually dead." Her eyes grow wide, "since when have you been dating Ziggler? And why haven't you told me?" I go on to tell her the whole story about how Dolph and I ended up together going all the way back to Z-Day. "I wanted to tell you friend, especially after yesterday but we had decided to not tell anyone given what is going on. Actually before he left on the run we had decided that we would go public when he got back." She laughs, "well you did that for sure." I laugh too as Zack slides into the seat on my other side. "How's Zigs?" he asks me. "He is okay. Doc gave him some stitches and said he probably has a concussion. He is asleep right now." Zack nods looking relieved to know his friend will be okay. I eat quickly, anxious to get back and check on Dolph. On my way out of the room I grab a bottle of water and something for him to eat but when I get back to the room he is still asleep. I sit content to just watch him sleep until I too fall asleep.

I wake up to find Dolph already awake and eating the food I had left for him. "Hey." I say stretching, "how do you feel?" He shrugs, "still a bit achy but not as bad as yesterday." "You feel up to joining the group?" He says he is so we go down to the catering area and we grab some food and join our friends. As we sit eating a throat clears getting everyone's attention. I turn and see AJ, Gallows and Anderson standing at the front of the room. "Hey guys…it's been no secret that there three of us have been considering leaving and trying to get to our families." AJ says addressing the group. "We've decided to leave today. After these two went on the run and got an idea of what it is like out there we decided it's time. We only plan to take enough supplies to last us a few days so that we won't take too much from the group." He stops and looks over the group. "If there is anyone that wants to come they are more than welcome to join us."

Slowly people get up and go over to The Club and starting saying goodbye. Ravyn and I go up together having gotten close The Club in our time here. "Good Sisters!" Gallows greats us as we approach. "Tornado Hoot, princess Hoot..." Anderson says to me and then to Ravyn using our nicknames while too sweeting us. "You crazy Hoots are really going to go out there?" Ravyn asks, "we have too. We should have left a long time ago." Anderson answers her. "Well you Hoots better be careful out there and I hope you make it back to your damn property." I put on my best redneck voice for the end of my sentence copying Gallows' and Anderson's infamous redneck voice as they howl with laughter. "Oh, Tornado Hoot..." Gallows laughs, "you may hail from the wresting schools of Canada but coming from Kansas…well you know what they say…you can take the girl out of the redneck territories but you can't take the redneck out of the girl. Too sweet me good sister!" He holds up the too sweet gesture so high that I have to jump to reach it. "You good brothers better be careful out there. Seriously." Ravyn warns as AJ comes over to us. "Their biggest threat will be me killing them if they talk in that redneck voice the whole time." I laugh and hug AJ as does Ravyn. He had always been so supportive of the women's division. He would always hang out backstage if one of us was having a marquee match. "Try not to kill the good brothers. Life would be too boring without them." I say as AJ rolls his eyes, "ugh, I'll try I guess."

Everyone pitches in to help them pack supplies and load up one of the few cars left in the garage that we hadn't syphoned gas from. We watch them pull off before heading back inside. "I hope they make it okay." I worry out loud as the doors close behind me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Life continues on over the next couple of weeks. A group goes out to retrieve the left behind supply cart and it's a good thing they do because it is full of winter weather gear which will come in handy as the days grow colder. Other than that we continue on with our "normal" lives. Dolph recovers from his concussion, which luckily was mild.

One day I find myself down in the ring goofing off with Bayley and Becky while Dolph and Finn stand on the outside watching. "Man…I miss I doing this every night." I sigh leaning against the ropes to catch my breath, brushing my sweaty hair back from my face. "Tell me about it…" Becky says sadly, standing next to me. A movement to my right catches my eye and I turn my head to look and see Ravyn and Tyler coming down the ramp. I go to the center of the ring and point, "look everyone!" I shout "It's Tyler!" I say mocking his entrance music. "You dare mock Prince Pretty?" He says totally in character and I smirk. He climbs into the ring and positions himself in the corner on the top rope and crosses his feet at the ankles. "Entertain the King of Cuteville uggos! I demand to be entertained!" Ravyn steps into the ring shaking her head in amusement, "you are ridiculous." He turns to her "the queen dares to mock her king? For that you can join the uggos and entertain me!" She just shrugs her shoulders, "then you better get your royal ass down so we can use the ropes." She teases him. He opens his mouth to argue but then realizes she is right and gets down from the ropes before climbing out of the ring to join Dolph and Finn on the outside.

Ravyn and I team up to take on Bayley and Becky. We put on a fun little match. I start out keeping it simple because this is the first time I had been back in the ring since hurting my ribs, but the longer we work the more confident I feel that I am finally fully healed and I pick it up. At one point Becky goes to whip me into the ropes when something catches my eye. I grab a hold of the ropes to stop myself and point towards the stands. "How the hell did that get in here?" The guys turn around to look at where I'm pointing and see a creature staggering down the stairs towards us. It reaches the barricade and bounces off it not being able to comprehend the roadblock before it. Everyone just stares at the creature, for everyone except Dolph and I this is their first time seeing one in person.

The creature reaches for us moaning and growling. It is grotesque, flesh rotting away, muscles and ribs exposed. "What are we going to do with it?" Bayley asks looking completely disgusted. "We have ta kill it…Dolph…you've been out there…what do we do?" Finn says and I look over at Dolph. He is staring at the creature with his mouth set in a straight line, eyes narrowed, fists clenched tightly and I wonder what is going through his mind. He turns from the creature and pulls back the ring apron and starts digging underneath it. After a moment he comes back with a kendo stick in his hand. He walks over to the creature, takes the kendo stick in both hands and takes a swing. The kendo stick slices right through the skull slicing it in half sending blood and goo flying. Everyone reacts with disgust but I can't take my eyes off Dolph who is seething, glaring at the spot where the creature had stood.

I climb out of the ring and go over to him. I slowly reach down and take the bloody kendo stick from his hand. He turns to me and the intensity in his eyes goes away and his shoulders relax. "You okay?" I ask him. He takes a deep breath, "Yeah, just seeing one close like that brought back some bad memories." I take his hand to show my support.

Our peace is short lived as a growl pulls our attention back to the stands as three more creatures staggering down the stairs. "Where the fuck are they coming from?" I ask exasperated. Dolph takes the kendo stick back from and makes a move towards the barricade but I grab his arm, "hey wait! You can't take them all by yourself!" I yell trying to stop him from doing something stupid. "There is only three of them." He says as if it's no big deal but just then dozens more come to the top of the stairs. "You've got to be kidding me." Breeze says noticing them. Before I can stop him Dolph leaps over the barricade and runs up the stairs towards to the first three creatures. "Shit!" I exclaim before diving under the ring and find a kendo stick of my own. "Someone go get more help!" I yell to the others before I jump over the barricade and run up the stairs to try and go help Dolph.

By the time I get to him he has already taken out the first three and is moving towards the larger group. Together we work at taking them out but the numbers are becoming too overwhelming as more keep pouring down the stairs. "We need to spread them out." Dolph yells taking out another one. "You go left. I'll go right. Just be careful!" I nod concentrating on the creatures around me as I move down the row to my left bringing a line of them with me. I take down a few more before I reach the end of the row and start backing up the stairs. I don't make it very far before more start coming down the stairs behind me. Going back the other way is out of the question because that is where a stream of them are going after Dolph, so I start to go down the row to my right hoping for an escape route. I make it about halfway down the row before more creatures start coming down to the stairs on the other side trapping me in my row. "Shit shit shit…" I have no idea what to do. "Dolph!" I yell out stumbling over the seats to the row behind me but I'm just as trapped there. "DOLPH!" I yell again and this time he hears me and looks over at my way and a panicked look crosses his face when he sees my situation. "Jenny!" He yells taking out two more creatures trying to move in my direction as I scramble over more seats but every row I move up just gets swarmed.

I move to go over one more row stepping on the seat and go to step over the back of the seat but in my panic I trip. I land hard, my head striking the arm rest of a seat stunning me. I lay there unable to move. I know I'm done for, if I can't get up and fight I'm a goner. I can hear the creature's shuffling feet getting closer. I close my eyes waiting for the end to come. Instead of a creature bearing down on me and ripping me to shreds there is a sound of dozens of feet thundering up the steps and then there are the yells and sounds of battle. A creature lands with a thud next to me. I slowly roll over onto my back the room spinning slightly before coming into focus and an out of breath Finn appears over me. "Ya alright?" He asks reaching a hand out and slowly helping me up to a sitting position. I take a moment to see if I am ok before I answer. "Yea…I'm okay. Thanks Finn." I look around at all the carnage. I slowly make my way to my feet and see Seth, Sami and Goldust coming over to join us. "Jenny!" I turn as Dolph comes scrambling over the dead creatures and takes my face in his hands. "Are you okay?!" he starts looking me over for injuries. "I'm fine." He doesn't seem to hear me so I grab his arms. "Dolph. I'm fine." He pulls me into a hug, "thank god." I pull away and see that Dolph is flanked by Sheamus, Tyler, Fandango and R-Truth.

Our moment of peace is broken by more creatures appearing at the top of the stairs. "You've got to be fucking kidding me." Seth sighs staring at the hoard. "We have to get up there and see where they are coming from." Sami adds. The group begins to move in the direction of the creatures and I go to follow but Dolph stops me. "No, you back to the back." I look him dead in the eye. "No way in hell. I'm going with you." Dolph must realize I'm not backing down and gives in, picking my weapon up off the floor and handing it to me and we go off to catch up with the group who has already cleared the stairs and made their way up to the hallways. There were several dozen creatures shuffling around that our group was working to take out. I pause looking around for a moment taking in my surroundings and what I see surprises me. One of the entrance doors to the arena is wide open and that is where the creatures are coming from. "What the hell…" I start to walk towards the door, "hey Dolph…come look at this." Dolph comes back to my side and follows my gaze. "What the hell…" he says seeing the same thing I am and is just as confused by it. Together we go outside taking out a couple of nearby creatures. "Nikki?" I call out quietly to her but she either doesn't hear me or is ignoring me. She is walking slowly as if in a daze. I catch up to her and grab her shoulder. "Nikki." She turns to me, her eyes hollow. "What are you doing out here?" she doesn't say anything for a moment as if she doesn't even see me but then her eyes focus on me. "John…I saw John. He came back just like Dolph did." I look over at Dolph who shakes his head, "Nikki, I'm sorry but there is no way he could have survived…" she interrupts him, "but I saw him. He is over there." She turns and points and I squint towards where is pointing and I can't help but gasp my hand covering my mouth in shock.

Wandering aimlessly several feet away is in fact Cena, or at least the shell that is left of Cena because he has become one of the creatures. I chose my next words carefully. "Nikki…that's not John. Not anymore." Her demeanor quickly changes from hopeful to angry. "No! John came back for me! You got Dolph back and now I get John." She turns to go to him and I grab her arm. "Stop! If you go over there he will kill you." She pulls away, ignoring me. "John!" She yells and the noise makes him and several other creatures turn their attention to us and begin to move our way. "Nikki!" I beg her to stop but she keeps ignoring me and keeps walking towards Cena not even noticing the danger all around her. I take a few steps but Dolph reaches out and stops me, "We can't just let her get herself killed!" I say to him trying to pull away. "I know but I also don't think she wants us to stop her." I watch Nikki walk up to Cena. He stares at her as she slowly reaches a hand towards his face before he lunges sinking his teeth into her throat. She screams, but only for a moment before she falls to the ground, blood pooling all around her. I turn burying my face into Dolph's chest unable to look any longer.

We linger a little too long allowing the heard to get too close to us. "Okay…we gotta go now." Dolph urges pulling me back towards the doors. We hurry through them closing them just as the creatures slam into from the other side. I stand there staring at them as they claw at the glass doors trying to get at us. They are gruesome with exposed teeth, skin torn and hanging off their bones. "We did all we could." Dolph says breaking the silence. "She didn't want to be saved." I'm not sure if he is trying to convince me or himself. I turn away from the rotten faces "Come on. We should go check on the others."

We wander the halls passing the bodies of the dead creatures our group took out before we eventually find them. Other than being covered in sweat and gore everyone seems to be alright. Then I notice Goldust and Truth standing at the back of the group. Truth seems to be fussing over Goldust. "Hey…everything okay back here?" I go up to them and see that Goldust is bleeding heavily from his arm. "God! What happened?" I take his arm gently to take a better look at his wound. My stomach twists into a knot "Did you get bit?" I whisper and look him in the eyes. He looks scared so I try to smile reassuringly even though the deep gashes of teeth marks in his arm look horrific. "Come on. Let's get you checked by Doc. He will get you cleaned up."

We get Goldust to Doc who does his best to clean the wound and sets him up with a heavy dose of antibiotics. I go get cleaned up and sit on the couch staring at my hands when Dolph comes in. "Hey, you doing okay?" He asks, sitting down next to me. I can only shrug, "don't blame yourself for Nikki. She made her own choice. She wanted to be with Cena and that is where she is." I nod, "I have to say…I think I would have done the same if I were in her shoes." I admit. Dolph shakes his head, "no you wouldn't. You are stronger than you think, besides you wouldn't leave Ravyn behind. You'd move on without me." I shake my head and lean into his side and he wraps an arm around me. "I hope I don't have to make that decision. I've already had a taste of that feeling and I didn't like it."

We sit in silence for a while which is fine by me after the crazy day we had. Eventually though we decided to get something to eat. The catering area is a hum of excitement as everyone is telling stories of their battles with the creatures. I look around the room and see that Goldust and Truth are missing. "I'm going to go check on Goldie. I'll be back in a bit." I tell Dolph before going off to find them. Goldust is laying on the couch looking completely miserable while Truth lingers nearby looing scared. "Hey, how are you feeling?" I whisper going and kneeling next to the couch. He smiles at me weakly, face glistening with sweat and his breathing labored. "I'm just dandy." He tries to joke before he is taken over by a huge coughing fit. I look at Truth who looks beyond worried about his friend. Goldust appears to have drifted off to sleep after his coughing fit so I pull Truth a little ways away, "how long has he been like this?" I ask. "Almost right away. He said he felt pretty tired and then he got hit with a fever…" he trails off. "Have you had Doc come see him again?" Truth shakes his head. "He says he is fine and I didn't want to leave him alone." I put a hand reassuringly on his arm. "I'll go get him. You stay here."

Doc checks out Goldust again and determines that the bite is seriously infected. He tries loading him full of antibiotics but they don't seem to be working. Over the next couple of days he progressively get gets worse. He spends most of his time in a feverish sleep. The brief moments when he is awake he doesn't make any sense, he rambles on appearing to be in a deep hallucination.

We keep an around the clock vigil on him so that he is never alone. A few people even go out trying to scavenge for stronger antibiotics but they come back empty handed. They begin making plans to take a car and go scouting for a hospital the following morning. That night I am sitting in the room with Goldie while he sleeps. He is actually resting peacefully for the moment and I find myself dozing off.

I'm awoken by a gurgling sound. I slowly open my eyes trying to get my bearings. My eyes adjust and I see Goldust standing in the middle of the room staring at me. "Hey…what are you doing up? You feeling better?" he doesn't reply but takes a slow, staggering step towards me. Something seems off. "Is there something I can get you?" Again, no answer. I slowly stand up and take a cautious step towards him. As I get a little closer I turn on my flashlight and shine it towards him. As the beam of light catches his face I freeze. His eyes are cloudy and it's like there is no soul behind them. In this moment I realize that this is no longer Goldust. My heart breaks knowing what has to be done now. I can't do it. In my shock I stand there too long and soon he is right in front of me, reaching for me. I duck, dropping my flashlight and bolt for the door shutting it behind me. I have tears streaming down my face as I lean against the door. How do I tell everyone? I take a deep breath to settle my nerves, wipe the tears from my face and go off in search of help. The first person I run across is Truth and my heart crumbles. "Hey, I thought you were with Goldie?" When I don't respond right away he knows something is wrong. "What happened?" I take a deep breath. "He uh…he turned into one of them. I don't know how…he seemed to be resting comfortably…I feel asleep and when I woke up…" A look of pain crosses his face. "I'm so sorry Truth." "I…uh…someone…he shouldn't be left like that." I nod knowing exactly what he means. "Do you want me to go get someone else to do it?" "No. It should be me." he says. "Do you want me to go with you at least?" he shakes his head. "Ok. I'll go find the others. Tell them what's going on. We will come up with a plan of what do with the bo…what to do after."

Truth looks crushed about what he is about to do but he takes a deep breath and pulls out his weapon, we've all been keeping our weapons close just in case there are still any stray creatures wandering around that we missed the other day. He goes off without another word and I go off in the opposite direction to see if anyone else is still awake. I go check the catering area first and find Seth, Finn, Becky, Bayley, Ravyn, Tyler and thankfully Dolph. Ravyn sees me first and immediately knows something is wrong by the look on my face. "What wrong friend?" everyone turns to look at me. "Goldie…he's um…he's gone. Truth is with him now to uh…take care of it." Dolph pulls his chair out and reaches a hand out to me. I take it and allow him to pull me into his lap which I am thankful for because I am emotionally exhausted. "We need to decide how we are going to get rid of his body." I put the idea out there as we all sit in silence to mourn.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It's like the whole city is feeling the effects of our loss because when we wake up the morning after Goldust's funeral winter has arrived in full force leaving several inches of snow blanketing the streets and turning the arena into a freezer. It's so cold that every breath we take hangs in the air. Everyone is absolutely miserable and there just doesn't seem to be a way to get warm. Our supplies are running dangerously low and it is clear we have no choice but to brave the elements and go on a run.

Dolph and I bundle up with the warmest clothes we can find and sling empty backpacks over our shoulders. I'm nervous to go out there for the first time but also excited to see something other than the inside of this arena for the first time in months. We would only be journeying within a block or two of the arena we can't risk getting caught in the cold and not being able to get back. Ravyn follows us to the garage to see us off, "you better be careful out there." She tells me sternly, but she can't hide the worry in her voice. I hug her, "don't worry friend, we will be back by nightfall. I promise." She seems skeptical and I don't blame her. The last time the group went out for a run Cena died and Dolph almost did too.

We venture through the gates that secure the parking garage from the streets and as soon as we leave the sheltered structure it's like my lungs freeze inside of my chest. The wind, swirling snow and cold are absolutely brutal. I hunker down inside the oversized coat I was wearing which had been scavenged on the first run. I follow Dolph through the streets, my frozen fingers grip at my weapon, eyes scanning for the dead.

We come across a small café and decide to check and see if there any food that we could still eat. We find a few canned goods but everything else is pretty picked over so we move on. We find a pharmacy and grab a bunch of medications and bandages to give to Doc. "We should probably start heading back…it will be dark soon." Dolph observes, zipping up his bag after filling it with some food. "Should we scope out the other side of the street on the way back? Make sure we don't miss anything?" I ask, zipping up my own bag as he agrees to this plan.

We strike out at finding any useable supplies on the other side of the street as a new wave of snow begins to fall. "You know…if this was any other situation it would almost be romantic…but knowing the reality of things ruins that. Now…now it's just terrifying." I admit holding my weapon tighter. It's been too quiet, not a creature insight all day and it's making me feel uneasy. Dolph takes my free hand and gives it a squeeze. "We are almost back." He assures me as the last light of day vanishes behind the buildings and the arena comes into view.

We reach the sanctuary of the gated parking garage and I feel like I can breathe at last. We close and lock the gate and start walking towards the building's entrance. We stop dead in our tracks at the sound of a cough echoing through the garage. We look around for the source of the sound but see nothing. Then there is another cough and we are able to pinpoint where the noise came from. On the other side of the garage is a dumpster sitting along the fence line. We slowly approach and as we get closer we can hear hushed voice. We raise our weapons and shove the dumpster aside. Hiding behind the dumpsters on the other side of the fence is a young boy holding tightly to a barely conscious woman. "Please…" he says weakly when he sees us. "Please…don't hurt us. My girlfriend…she's very sick." The girl coughs again and trembles in the boy's arms. "Please…can you help us?"

I look at Dolph who is staring at the couple looking conflicted. "Has she been bit? Is that why she is sick?" he demands. "No. she is just sick! Please! Help her!" Dolph takes my hand and pulls me back a few steps. "Go get Doc. I'm going to bring them inside the gate, but not the building…not until we know what we are dealing with." I nod and take off at a run into the building. I blow by Ravyn and Tyler, ignoring their inquiries about what is wrong. By the time I find Doc I have drawn a small crowd who follow us out to the garage.

When we reach the garage Dolph and the boy have carried the girl to just outside the doors. Doc kneels down and starts to examine her as a cough wracks her body. "We need to get her inside." Doc says. "It's too cold out here for me to examine her." Dolph nods, "okay…but we will keep them at this end of the building…not near us. Not until we know if we can trust them."

We move her inside to the first room just inside the building. We scramble around setting Doc up with supplies and setting up a bed for the girl. By now everyone has gathered in the hall outside the room to see what all the commotion is about. These kids are the first outsiders we've seen since the soldiers stopped showing up. The girl is barely conscious as her boyfriend paces anxiously in the doorway. I gently grab his arm and he flinches away, "it's okay." I say quietly, holding up my hands to show I mean him no harm. "What's your name?" He fidgets nervously, "I'm Ben…and that's Tara." He finally tells me. "Are you alone? Do you have a group?" I try to ask questions calmly by my curiosity is running wild. "We had a small group…we are the only ones left though." He tells me sadly, never taking his eyes off Tara. "How old are you?" "17." He answers and I can't imagine being that young and alone trying to survive in this new world we live in.

Doc steps out of the room and Ben immediately goes to Tara's side. We step just out of earshot and Doc sighs. "I'm not sure if can help her…I just don't have the supplies. Her fever is off the charts, I hear fluid in her lungs…" he trails off dejectedly. "Should we scout for supplies? Maybe try to find a hospital?" Dolph asks. "To be honest …even if I had IV antibiotics and stuff for her I think she still may be too sick, but it wouldn't hurt to have those supplies in case someone here gets sick then we can be on it early and hopefully save someone's life"

With Doc's fears of illness, we plan a large run to a nearby hospital. Luckily Kofi is from Boston and knows the area well so he takes charge and the next morning Kofi along with Dolph, Zack, Sami, Kevin and Seth head to the hospital. While they are gone I go check on Ben and Tara. Outside their room I find Woods standing by looking in. "You look Deep in thought. What's going through that head of yours?" I ask him as I approach. "Are you sure we can trust them?" he asks never taking his eyes off the two kids. I'm a bit shocked by his question. "What do you mean? They are kids. She is on death's door…" I start but he interrupts me. "Exactly…they are kids that have been surviving apparently on their own, when we as a group of adults are struggling to survive? I just think there is more to their story…what if they are moles to infiltrate our group? This building is a beacon to survivors…we have secure shelter which is desirable in situations like this." I can't help but laugh a little, "Woods…I think you've been playing too many video games." He just shrugs. "Maybe you are right but it's got me thinking that if there ever was a threat here in the building we need to be prepared to escape…if these kids are out there who knows who else might show up on our doorstep." He goes on to hatch a plan about loading several cars with supplies and extra gas just in case we ever need to make a quick escape. He puts his plan into action right away and soon we have gathered some extra food, camping stoves, lanterns and blankets to put in the cars.

Just as darkness falls the group returns from the hospital. They look exhausted and filthy, clearly having had to battle their way through the hospital. Luckily everyone comes back unscathed and they managed to get tons of supplies. I wrap my arms around Dolph's waist and bury my face into his chest glad he is okay. "What's going on in the garage?" he asks having seen the commotion of Wood's plan in motion. I tell him about Wood's fears and his plans as we walk to our room so he can get cleaned up.

After he is out of the shower we sit snuggled up on the couch and he tells me about their run to the hospital. The streets were quiet but the hospital was full of the creatures. They were able to make their way to a fully stocked supply room and bring back tons of supplies and will even be going back for more and to check the cafeteria for canned goods.

They decide to move out the next morning and take a couple of cars. They take a larger group consisting of Kofi, Zack, Sami, Seth, Kevin, Finn, Big E, Becky, Tye, Corbin, Dolph, Nia and Tyler all go so they can bring back as many supplies in one trip as they can. I watch them drive through the gates before closing it behind them. Back inside I find Ravyn pacing and I know she is worrying about Tyler. This is his first time going out there. I do my best to distract her by giving us both mundane tasks to do to keep our minds occupied. We head down to the basement to restock our supplies from down there since a good portion of stock got packed into the cars. I try to keep a simple mindless stream of conversation going but only seem to get one worded responses from my worried friend. "They will be okay. They took a large group, lots of weapons and people to watch his back." I try to reassure her after a long silence. She looks at me, "you don't know that." Her voice quivers. I hug her, "no, I don't but it's what I keep telling myself to make myself feel better." I tell her pitifully, knowing I am doing a horrible job at making her feel better. We move on in silence going through the medical supplies so that we can add some to the supplies in the cars.

Luckily everyone does come back and I watch as Ravyn runs into Tyler's arms. I smile at them as Dolph comes up to me and drapes an arm around my shoulders. Things seem to be looking up again for our group. We now have a ton of medical supplies and a fully restocked supply of food. Hopefully it will be enough to get us through the harshest part of winter so that we don't have to make any more runs for a while.

We organize our new supplies and add even more food to our car stash and making sure Doc has everything he needs. He has Tara hooked up to an IV of antibiotics and while her fever seems to be slowly lowering she has yet to regain consciousness which has Ben worried. I bring him a plate of food on the evening of their fourth night with our group, hoping to get more of their story. He tells me they were in the city on a date when it all went to hell and much like us here in the arena, a group of soldiers told those left at the restaurant to stay put until they came to evacuate them but they never returned. So, the restaurant survivors formed a group and remained in the restaurant until they ran out of food. They managed to join another larger group that was scavenging its way across the city but winter hit them hard and they are the only ones left and now they are here with us. After he opens up to me Ben starts slowing venturing from Tara's side and begins joining us for meals. He begins asking us questions about our time in the arena since everything went down.

Things return to our new sense of normal for a few days but then Doc's fears come true and people start getting sick. It starts slow, just a few people with coughs but it snowballs from there in just a matter of hours until a bunch of people are in the same state as Tara with chills and high fevers. On the second night after the sickness hits I'm woken up out of a dead sleep. It takes me a moment to figure out what woke me until I realize the whole mattress I am laying on is shaking. I sit up slowly and reach over to put a hand on Dolph's shoulder, but quickly pull it back as if I've been scalded touching a hot stove. I quickly turn on the lantern and put my hand on his shoulder again and roll him over. He is shivering, burning with fever and his teeth are chattering. "Dolph…" I say gently trying to wake up him, my heart pounding. Even in the dim light of the lantern I can see the sheen of sweat coating his face. When I can't wake him, I scramble to my feet and run across the hall to get Zack. Together we manage to get him to the make shift hospital Doc has set up in one of the larger locker rooms in order to accommodate all his patients. This sickness has struck hard and fast. I sit next to Dolph, gently placing a cool rag on his forehead as I listen to the hacking coughs and ragged breathing of those around me.

Doc works through the night by lantern light, desperately doing what he can to ease everyone's suffering with the limited supplies we have. I don't know how he is managing because just after a few hours of tending to only Dolph I'm spent. He is at least resting comfortably now and I'm thinking about going to get something to eat the door to the locker room bursts open and Tyler walks in carrying Ravyn's unconscious body.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

I watch frozen in shock as Tyler rushes into the room and goes right over to Doc. I get up slowly and walk over to him. "What happened?" I ask him, not taking my eyes off Ravyn. He doesn't answer, it's like he doesn't even hear me. I gently place a hand on his arm, "Tyler…" he turns to see me. "What happened?" I ask again. "We were getting ready to go gets some breakfast…and she just collapsed…" I give his arm a reassuring squeeze as Doc stands up from examining Ravyn, "she has the same sickness." He says sounding exhausted. "What can we do Doc? Do we need better medications?" I question and he just shakes his head. "I'm a sports medicine guy…even if I had the equipment to help this sickness, in this many people, is more than I know what to deal with I'm afraid…I'm sorry. I'm doing what I can." He apologizes before drifting off to check on the others.

Over the next twenty-four hours Tyler and I stay by our significant other's sides, forcing them to drink and take pills to try and reduce their fevers while Doc gives them IV antibiotics. While they seem to have stabilized they are both still unconscious. I stand, stretching my stiff back. I tell Tyler I will be back and I head off to go get something to drink. I bump into Zack who says he will sit with Dolph while I am gone.

I grab a bottle of water, newly scavenged from the hospital, and twist off the cap chugging down half of it. I decide I need some air so I make my way to the parking garage. I reach the door and instinctively reach out to open it only to find it already ajar. I push it open the rest of the way and step out into the cold air. I look around, but nothing seems to be out of place. I walk around the corner leading to the gate and find it wide open. "What the hell…" I say to myself. I walk up to the gate and find that the lock we kept on it has been cut. This is all very odd.

I am about to head back into the building to let someone know what I've found when I hear a blood curdling scream from inside the building. I take off running back inside. I only stop when I reach Ben and Tara's room because I notice it is empty. Tara had yet to regain consciousness since arriving here so where is she? I notice a streak of blood on the doorframe to her room and follow it seeing that there is a bloody streak along the wall leading down the hallway towards our living area. Another scream brings me back to reality and I take off running, following the bloody trail on the wall. I round a corner and come skidding to a stop. The source of the scream is one of the ladies from the glam squad and she is having her flesh ripped off by Tara. I pull out my weapon and stab her through the temple. I look to the young makeup woman, dead in front of me and know what I have to do.

I crouch down in front of her, putting the tip of weapon to her temple and close my eyes before shoving it through her skull. I turn my head away before even opening my eyes. When I do I notice something odd with Tara. There is a pair of scissors sticking out of her neck. What the fuck is going on here? I'm brought back to this harsh reality by more screaming, this time it is the screams of several people. I stand up and continue sprinting down the hall. I round a corner, following the screams and stop when I find Ben with his back to me. "Ben?" I say, trying to catch my breath and he turns slowly at the sound of my voice. "Ben…do you know what's going on?" I ask him, but he just stares at me with hollow eyes. "Ben?" I say again. "Have you seen Tara?" he asks, his voice devoid of any emotion. "I did…I'm sorry but she is gone. She became a creature and I had to kill her…" I admit quietly. A smirk crosses his face causing me to narrow my eyes in confusion. "Did she kill anyone?" his voice now has a haunting tone to it that sends a shiver down my spine. When I don't answer right away he gets right in my face yelling, "I said did she kill anyone!?" I flinch back, "Yes. One woman." He makes a noise of disappointment. "Only one? Damn." The screams intensify as I notice the blood on Ben's hands and the pieces fall into place.

"You are the one who put the scissors in her neck." He rolls his eyes. "She was supposed to have died from the illness but we didn't bank on you having a doctor." "We?" He laughs maniacally "yes, we. My group is here and we are taking over." He takes a few steps forward, forcing me back into a wall. "You said you didn't have a group." I say as I bump into the wall, looking around for a way out. "All part of our brilliant plan. My group needs a new home and well…this arena…" he pauses looking around, "well this arena is just too perfect so we are going to take it." He lunges, pinning my wrists to the wall above my head and holding a knife to my throat. "But first we have to get rid of all of you. Had to infect a bunch of you because there are more of you than us, but once you started to succumb to the sickness we finally found our time to strike. So, now those of you that didn't get sick, need to be taken out." He raises the knife above his head but right before he can plunge it into my neck a hand closes around his wrist. I look over his shoulder and see Seth Rollins standing there seething. He yanks Ben back, whirling him around to face him before he punches him straight in the face.

Ben crumbles straight to the ground in a heap. I gasp, trying to get my breath back after that near death moment. "You okay?" Seth asks and I nod, "yeah thanks to you. Where is everyone else?" I ask and he shakes his head. "It's chaos back there. Creatures are everywhere, and there are people too…ruthless people. J…we need to get out of here." I shake my head. "No…I need to get to Dolph…" I start to head down the hall towards the sound of the screams but Seth grabs my elbow. "You don't want to go down there. It's a war zone. I'm sure Dolph has fought his way out to look for you…" I shake my head again, trying to pull my arm free from his grasp. "No, he's sick. He can't fight." I begin to panic. "J…" Seth says sounding sad, "I went by where Doc had all the sick people…" I stop fighting his hold my heart beating with nerves. "What are you saying?" I ask quietly, "J…the room was overrun with creatures…I'm sorry but there is no way anyone made it out of there." He tries to put a comforting hand on my shoulder but I shrug it off. "No." I say firmly, "you are wrong."

My head is spinning. There is no way I've lost him again, and Ravyn, Tyler and Zack were there too. No. they aren't gone. I refuse to believe it. "J?" Seth says bringing me back from my thoughts. "I'm going to find them. Get out of my way." I practically growl at him. "It's a suicide run…" he says trying to talk me out of it but I just glare at him. "I don't care." He holds up his hands in surrender and steps aside. "Good luck."

I take off at a run once again, head on a swivel. I start hearing noises so I slow down, not wanting to run full steam into a hoard of creates or members of Ben's group. I reach an intersection of the hallway and slowly creep up and peak around the corner looking down the hallway. I quickly duck back behind the wall because just around the corner are two humans. I begin to panic at how exposed I am as they make their way towards me. I look around and am relieved to see a door marked 'custodial' right behind me and I quickly and quietly open the door and slip inside closing the door behind me plunging the room into darkness. I take a step backwards away from the door and half to stop myself from screaming when I bump into someone. "J?!" I almost cry with relief at the sound of Zack's voice.

"Zack!" I cry, hugging him with relief as he shushes me before my panic returns, "Dolph!" I say quickly pulling away from the hug. "He's okay. He's in here." He takes my hand and leads me to the back of the closet and pulls me down to my knees where I reach out and find Dolph's feverish from in the darkness. "What about Tyler and Ravyn?" I whisper. "They made it out of the locker room with us…but we got separated in the chaos. I had to hide in here from a group of people in the hall…who are they?" I recount what Ben told me. "We have to get out of here…I say we try to find Ravyn and Tyler and get to a car."

Zack agrees with this and we get Dolph back to his feet with Zack practically carrying him. I slowly crack open the door and peak out to see if the coast is clear. The hall is quiet so we step out and begin to make our way down the hall. I keep a few paces in front of Zack, weapon raised and ready. Things are quiet for a few hallways but up a head I can hear the sound of growls and shuffling. We round the corner and find a group of five creatures ripping the flesh of the body of the glam squad member. I signal for Zack to stay put as I sneak up on the distracted bodies and quickly take out two before the other three can catch on. I get one more before the last two try to jump on me. I lunge, stabbing one while the other staggers away and I run up behind it taking it out. My adrenaline is pumping so hard that I have no time to be afraid, all I know is that I have to get out of this building.

We continue on and just as we are almost to the exit all hell breaks loose. The remainder of our group is fighting both creatures and humans alike. I catch sight of Tyler hanging away from the fight with Ravyn held protectively in his arms. Even with all the chaos I actually smile at seeing them both okay. "Stay here. I'm going to help them try to clear a path to the garage. If you see an opening go. I'll be right behind you, just get him out of here." I tell Zack before going to join the fight.

I hack and slash my way through the creatures hardly paying attention to what I am doing. I have my weapon raised to drive it into the skull of the next creature closest to me when I stop dead in my tracks. This creature is one of our people. I take a second to look around and realize how many of the creatures are our people. I see Charlotte, Sheamus, Cesaro, Carmella and so many others. I turn back to look at who is in front of me, my heart breaking as I look into the now cloudy, dead eyes of Fandango. He is slowly walking towards me, growling, teeth snapping at me as I back I way. I glance back at Tyler who is watching me with wide eyes. I see him give a slight nod before looking away. I stop backing up and let Dango approach me. "I'm so sorry…" I whisper before plunging my weapon right between his eyes.

I pull my weapon back and watch him fall lifelessly to the floor. I watch as our group briefly gets the upper hand, pushing the invaders back. I see an opening and signal to Zack and Tyler to make a break for it. I fight to the opening as Zack slips through with Dolph. Tyler is approaching the gap carrying Ravyn when from out of nowhere another group of invaders comes from an adjoining hallway, quickly closing the gap. I freeze, watching in horror as Tyler and Ravyn disappear in the chaos. "No!" I yell, drawing the attention of the invaders. "J! Come on!" Zack yells and I reluctantly turn from the fight and help Zack carry Dolph down the hall, tears welling up in my eyes.

We burst through the doors and head for one of the cars packed with supplies. We lay Dolph in the back seat. I get in on the other side laying his head in my lap. I look out the back window wiling Tyler and Ravyn, anyone to come through the door. Zack climbs in the driver's seat and pulls the keys down from the visor. "We have to go back." I say, a tear sliding down my cheek as Zack puts the key in the ignition, "we would never make it." He tries to rationalize. "We can't leave them behind." I practically beg, my voice cracking with emotion as he starts the car. "We have no choice." He puts the car in drive, I can hear the sadness in his voice and know that the decision is killing him.

I watch the door as Zack drives through the garage towards the still open gate. I still hope it will open before we round the corner but sadly it stays closed as we pull slowly onto the snowy streets. I look down at Dolph who seems to have slept through the everything. I stroke his feverish cheek, tears silently falling down my own cheeks.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The driving is slow going. Several inches of heavy snow packs the roads which are full of abandoned cars that we have to weave our way through. We don't talk. Just drive. After some time, I realize Dolph is shivering. I place a hand on his forehead and am alarmed by how high his fever has gotten. "We need to find somewhere to stop." I say breaking the long silence, my voice cracking with emotion. "Dolph's fever is bad. We need to get some medicine in him." Zack just nods.

We drive for a bit longer before coming across a crappy looking motel right off the road. The snow is falling heavier now so we really have no choice but to pull over here. "I'll make sure the room is safe…" Zack murmurs climbing out of the car. I watch through the windshield as he goes up to a door and turns the knob. This motel clearly hasn't been updated in years because it isn't equipped with electronic keycards. The door happens to be unlocked and swings open with ease. Zack steps inside with his weapon and flashlight raised and I hold my breath for what feels like hours until I see him step back out again.

He comes back out to the car and opens the door, "it's clear, let's get him inside." We gently pull him out of the car. Zack supports Dolph as I dash ahead to hold the door open while Zack gets him in and lays him down on the closest bed. I close the curtains tightly, to make sure no light can be seen from the outside. We get Dolph tucked in before Zack slips back outside bringing in the medicine and a lantern. I lock the door behind him, securing the chain into place for extra security. Together we manage to get him to swallow a couple pills and drink a few sips of water. He wakes up briefly but is in such a delirium from his fever that he has no idea where he is.

His consciousness is brief and soon he is sleeping but his shivering has stopped and he seems to be resting peacefully. I sit next to him on the bed and watch as Zack paces back forth in the small space the foot of the bed. I'm trying to think of anything other than Ravyn and Tyler and all those we've lost. I jump at the sound of a car pulling into the parking lot as Zack plunges for the lantern quickly extinguishing it, plunging the room into darkness. The car engine shuts off just outside our room. A door squeaks open followed by the quiet thump of someone trying to close it quietly. My heart is beating so loud that I'm convinced that whoever is outside will hear it.

It's quiet for a moment. Then there are voices, speaking in a hushed whisper, "are you sure we should stop here?" The voice makes my jaw drop. I leap out of the bed, stumbling in the darkness, slamming into the door as I fumble with the locks. I yank the door open dashing out in the cold where I am thrilled to see Tyler and Tye standing with their weapons raised. I throw my arms around Tyler's neck. "Damnit J!" He whispers pulling back from the hug, "we thought you were a creature!" he whispers. "Ravyn?" I ask my voice full of concern. "She's asleep in the car." I hug him again, "Thank god! Come on, let's get her inside."

I glance back and see Zack standing in the door way of the room. He disappears back inside and relights the lantern as Tyler lifts Ravyn out of the car and carries her inside. We get her tucked into the other bed. "I'll go get some supplies from your car." I offer, slipping outside. As I am digging through the trunk of the car I can hear the sound of several car engines approaching, one car's motor is sputtering horribly. I look left towards the sound but see no headlights. I squint into the darkness trying to find the source of the sound. What I wouldn't give for a street light right now.

The sound is getting louder a finally I able to make out their shapes in the darkness and to my horror they pull into the parking lot. I quickly duck around to the side of the car, not having time to close the trunk. The car with the bad motor putters noisily to a stop before the horrific sound finally stops. I hear the door open and the sound of metal thumping as the car gets kicked. "Piece of shit. Who rented such a crappy car for the loop!?" A familiar raspy voice says and I stand up from my hiding spot. "Seth!?" he spins around, startled by the sound of my voice. "Holy shit J! you made it out?" he asks stunned as more people climb out of all the cars. In Seth's car is Dean, Renee, Becky and Nattie. Out of the other cars comes all three members of New Day, Bayley, Nia, Corbin, Jericho, Finn, Sami and Alexa. There is a lot of excited chatter about having found more survivors from our group as I quickly usher everyone inside so we don't attract any creatures with our noise.

We check two of the adjoining rooms and find them clear and space ourselves out to try and get some rest. My brain won't slow down as I lay in the bed next to Dolph, replaying the events of the past few hours. I try to close my eyes but each time I do I see a vision of myself plunging my weapon into Fandango's skull and my eyes fly back open and I have to catch my breath. I give up on sleep and sit up in the bed leaning my back against the wall, pulling my knees to my chest. I sit wondering when the silence got to be so loud. The silence of our world with the lack of electricity humming is hard to get used to. Even the smallest of noises feels amplified. A small snore, someone coughing in their sleep makes me feel like the whole city can hear us and that each noise will bring down a hoard of creatures upon us. The sound of a movement in the next bed catches my attention and I turn my head and I can see Tyler's eyes reflected in the small sliver of moonlight that is filtering in through a crack in the curtain when he sees that I am looking at him he turns away quickly.

I lay back down, staring at the ceiling as night turns into day and people begin to slowly stir. People begin to trickle into the room, no one seeming to have any idea what to do next. Ideas are bounced around but no one can agree on anything, too many shattered nerves after yesterday. I don't partake in the discussions. I just linger next to Dolph, watching him in his fevered sleep. Tyler is also keeping watch over Ravyn. The relief at finding them both alive last night has worn off and now he won't even look at me and I know he is blaming me for Fandango. I have no idea what to say to him. How do you apologize to someone for killing their best friend right in front of them? I know it really wasn't Dango anymore, but that doesn't make me feel any less responsible for him.

"Breezey…" I whisper shyly, trying to get his attention, but he refuses to look at me. "Tyler…I'm sorry about Dango…but I had no choice." I try to apologize, my voice cracking with emotion as a tear slides my face. He looks at me finally and he looks broken. "I know you had to do it…" he starts, "but that doesn't stop me from seeing you plunging your weapon through my friend's head every time I look at you." I nod, not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry." I tell him again.

We spend a nerve wracking day hiding out in the hotel. No one seems to know how to function outside of our arena sanctuary that kept us safe for the last few months. Night falls once again and we set up a rotation of people to keep watch. I have watch in the middle of the night but I know I won't be sleeping again at all. So, while everyone not on watch sleeps I just lay there staring at the ceiling. My eyelids begin to slowly close, exhaustion finally taking over when I feel the bed shift next to me and I hear a slight groan. My eyes fly back open and I look over to see that Dolph is awake, eyes open wide looking around trying to figure out where he is. I sit up, propping myself up on my elbow to see him better. "Hey baby!" I whisper happily trying not to cry tears of joy. His gaze shifts towards the sound of my voice and for the first time in days I can look into his blue eyes. they lack their usual sparkle but they are open.

He opens his mouth as if to speak but can't. I scramble out of bed tripping in the darkness to find a bottle of water. I find one and nearly step on Zack's face on my way back to the bed. I prop Dolph up and help him take a few sips. "Where are we?" he asks hoarsely. "A motel. Things took a bad turn at the arena and we had to leave." I tell him the whole story, not sparing any details. By the end I have tears streaming down my face for those we've lost. Dolph doesn't say anything as he processes everything I just told him. After a few minutes of silence, I ask him how he is feeling. "Like I did after my ladder match with Harper." He says with a slight hint of a smile on his face.

He reaches a hand out to me and I take it. "Are you okay?" I shake my head. "I think Tyler blames me for Dango. Hell, I blame me for Dango." I whisper glancing over to where Tyler sleeps. Dolph squeezes my hand but doesn't say anything. I look back to him and see that he is struggling to keep his eyes open. I can't stop the small smile that forms as I lay down next to him and snuggle into his side. "Thank you for coming back to me again." I whisper laying my head on his chest. He wraps an arm around me holding me tight. "Anytime babe." He murmurs before he is asleep. I try to keep my eyes open but with the relief I am now feeling exhaustion finally takes over and for the first time in days my eyes close and I fall asleep.

Things continue to look up the next morning when Ravyn also regains consciousness. I listen as Tyler tells her what happened at the arena. He hesitates slightly when he gets to the part about Dango. Ravyn looks at me, her eyes welling up with tears before she buries her face into Tyler's shoulder. I can't take the sound of her crying so I scurry out of bed and go outside. The cold air hits me like a slap to the face taking my breath away. I suck in lung fulls of the cold air trying to breath as I walk to where our cars are parked. I lean against the side of a large SUV and slide down the side of it into the snow cursing the harshness of this new world.

Something thumps against the side of the SUV. I hold my breath, hearing the sounds of feet dragging and ragged breathing. I clamp my hand over my mouth trying desperately to not make a sound as I grasp desperately with my other hand for my weapon. I close my eyes in despair when I find my makeshift holster empty. Another thump, this one at the front of the car getting closer. I crouch, getting ready to run for it as a foot comes into view. I begin to slowly back away when Dolph stumbles into view, using the car to hold himself up, his breath labored. I jump up and run to his side. "What the hell are you doing out here?!" I scold him. "I…was…tr…trying…" he breaks off coughing. "Come on. We need to get you back inside." He nods weakly, leaning heavily on me. As we reach the room a frantic looking Zack comes through the doorway but he instantly looks relieved when he sees us. He helps to get Dolph back into bed and he falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Tyler isn't there when I return and Ravyn is still awake so I go crawl into the bed next to her. "How are you feeling?" I ask her quietly as she picks at a snag in the cheap motel blanket. "I'm okay. Pretty worn out…not to mention in shock about all the stories I just heard…" I nod. "It's been a couple days and my brain is still trying to process it…" I admit to her. "Listen friend…about Dango…" I start, feeling the need to apologize. "J…It's okay." She says cutting me off. "Dango wasn't your fault." She says to me and I shake my head. "I feel like all those we lost are my fault. I brought those two into our home…I fell for their act and now look where we are?" I finally admit my guilt out loud. "Stop that." Ravyn says firmly. "We all allowed Ben and Tara into our home. They were kids and were easy to trust. They fooled us all." "She's right." I look up to see Tyler standing in the doorway. "Nothing that happened was your fault. We have been mostly kept from the true horrors of this new reality." He walks over the bed, "and now we've been thrown into the deep end of this shit pool of a life we now have to live." He finishes sitting down next to Ravyn.

We spend another quiet couple of days holed up in the motel while Dolph and Ravyn continue to get stronger. We don't allow ourselves to slip into a false sense of security, there is always someone on guard. During the day everyone throws around ideas of what to do next. Some people want to make the trek back to Florida where many of us have homes. The argument is made that it is too far, too dangerous. Others suggest trying to find another secure building within the city. Stay where we can get supplies. I shake my head, none of those ideas sound good to me. "What do we do when the supplies run out?" I question but get no response. "I think we should head West. Head towards a less populated part of the country where maybe there are less creatures. Hell, maybe we could find a farm to grow our own food…" I suggest and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.

"That sounds great in dream land…but we would have to travel a long way to get there." Corbin snaps sarcastically. "It's got to be better than the city. We already know how bad it is here. I know nowhere is safe but to me the idea of being somewhere isolated feels a hell of a lot safer than a large city." I argue back defending my idea. "I can't be the only one who is terrified of being this close to the road here?" I ask the group and a few people nod in agreement. "How would we get that far? We don't have enough supplies, fuel and not to mention the elements…it's a death sentence to drive that far." Woods says, "it's just not practical." He adds. "Nothing is practical anymore." I reply. "We've been too sheltered and passive since all this started. I think it's time to take some risks in order to survive." I counter. Everyone is quiet. "I t'ink J is right…" Finn finally says, "da city just doesn't feel safe ta me anymore…" A few others begin nodding in agreement. "Maybe we should try…" Woods says skeptically, "it would take some time and planning…but maybe we could make it work."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

We spend the next week planning and scavenging for more supplies giving Dolph and Ravyn time to get their strength back. Someone found a map of the US at a nearby gas station and we have been pouring over it trying to find the best route West. Luckily for us Jericho is a good map reader having been on the road in the days before smartphones.

We work under the cover of darkness too afraid of being spotted by the living during the day more than we are of the dead at night. We get five cars packed full of as many supplies as we've managed to scavenge on our runs plus our remaining supplies from the arena, stooping so low as to even break into the motels measly vending machines grabbing bags of chips and candy bars. Seth and Dean found a gas station nearby that had a huge supply of empty gas cans which we worked to fill with as much gas as we've been able to siphon out of nearby abandoned cars.

As the week draws to a close, we decide it's time to make our move. It hasn't snowed for a few days and the sun has been out enough to melt most of the snow off the roads so we decide to leave in the morning. We check, double check and triple check our supplies to make extra sure everything is in order. Everyone heads to bed as soon as it is dark with the plan to leave at first light. I snuggle into Dolph's side as he kisses my temple, rubbing slow circles on my arm. I try to relax but I'm anxious about tomorrow. As nervous as I've been to stay in one spot this long the idea that we are now going to be leaving the motel is terrifying to me. What if my plan leads us all to death?

At first light we load into the cars and start heading West. Jericho is in the lead car acting as our navigator, with Kofi, Woods, E and Natalya. I'm in a car with Dolph, Ravyn, Zack and Tyler. Everyone else is divided amongst the three other cars in or caravan. We weave our way through the abandoned cars before we finally break through and find some open road and we are able to cruise. Things get difficult when we finally reach I90, the roads are horribly congested with abandoned cars. We zig zag our way slowly down the road, some times having to drive on the shoulder. Before too long though the cars are no longer held in the lanes but strewn all over the road, doors open, obviously abandoned in a hurry. We slow to a stop and slowly climb out of our own cars to survey the destruction.

As far as the eye can see it is wall to wall cars as if it was rush hour traffic and everyone just decided to get out of their cars and walked. "Let's scout a head a bit, see if we can find a way through." Seth suggests. "We should also check for supplies, get more gas…looks like a lot of items got left behind." Nattie adds looking into the backseat of a nearby SUV. I look into the backseat of the closest car too me and sure enough it is crammed full of supplies. A group heads out to scout a head while the rest of us scout the cars.

I walk along the driver side of a blue SUV scanning the trunks and back seats of the cars as I go. I have my face close the windows, arm over my eyes trying to block the glare from the overly bright winter sun. As I reach the driver's window, I jump back repulsed a woman's body sits slumped over the steering wheel, face turned away from me. My heart is pounding from the scare, but I can't stop staring at the body. I slowly lean towards the window again, curiosity getting the better of me. My face is inches from the window, my eyes scanning the skull for a head wound, when suddenly the head turns and in one swift motion the body lunges at the window, clawing at the glass I stumble back tripping and landing hard in the snow. I stare at the figure as it claws desperately at the glass, snapping its exposed teeth. "You okay?" I jump at the voice, I hadn't heard Dolph approach. He reaches a hand out pulling me up from the snow. "Yeah, I'm fine." I answer, brushing the snow off me still starring at the living shell of the women in the car. "Should we take care of her?" Dolph asks and I shake my head. "No. She's not going anywhere." I turn from the car and continue on down the line. From now on I make sure to check the driver's seat first to avoid any more surprises.

I pop open the back hatch of a large SUV and start digging through the various duffle bags. They are full of useless items, obviously packed in a panicked hurry. I sit dejectedly on the tailgate. "You okay?" Dolph asks sitting down next to me. "I'm just hoping we made the right decision and that nothing goes wrong…" I worry aloud. "I feel like I talked everyone into this journey and if anything were to go wrong…" Dolph takes my hand cutting me off mid thought. "It wouldn't be your fault. Everyone knows how dangerous things are." He tries to assure e and I just shake my head, unable to convince myself. "Come on, we should keep moving." I murmur sliding out of the back of the SUV. I dump the contents out of the duffle bags and move on to the next car. I fill up a duffle with some canned goods I find in the back of the next car and hand it to Dolph to take back to our cars while I work to fill another one.

I'm pulling items out of a suitcase when I hear a stampede of footsteps headed my way. I lower the trunk lid enough so that I can look through the windshield of the car and I can see Seth, Sami, Corbin and Kofi sprinting back towards the group. "Get down! Hide!" Seth hisses at me as he sprints by, the others hot on his heels. I watch him go, confusion written all over my face. I turn back and through the car I see what they were running from. Headed this direction is the largest hoard of creatures I have ever seen. They are shuffling down the road by the hundreds. "shit." I hiss, turning from the car to follow Seth but I can't move. My bag is caught on the trunk latch. I curse at the bag, tugging desperately but the latch is hooked good and the bag won't pull free. I look back and panic when I see how close the hoard is. "Fuck!" I panic as they reach the front of the car. I give the bag one last desperate yank and it breaks free so I quickly dive into the trunk pull the lid closed but not letting it latch.

I clamp a hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming when the first creature bumps the car. I listen to their growls and shuffling feet. I flinch every time one of them staggers, thumping into the side of the car. After what feels like hours it gets quiet. I slowly move, lifting the trunk a few inches first, then a few inches more, peeking my head outside. The coast looks clear so I let the trunk lid open all the way and slowly climb out. Before I can one get one foot on the ground, a lone creature comes around the car, grotesque fleshless fingers reaching for me. I fall back in surprise, hitting the back of my head on the latch. I see stars, my eyes watering from the pain. I shake my head trying to clear my vision. Things start coming back into focus and I see the creature leaning into the car. I scramble back as far as I can in the tight space. I turn to kick the creature in the face, knocking its head askew, but it still keeps reaching blindly at me. I keep kicking at it trying to gain some separation as I grope blindly in the trunk attempting to find something to use as a weapon. My hand closes around a piece of metal as I find the tire iron. I plunge it through the creature's skull and it slumps into the trunk. I lean back, catching my breath, my adrenaline still pumping.

I don't have long to relax as two more creatures appear in the opening of the trunk obviously attracted by the noise caused by my struggle with the first creature. With the tire iron still in my hand I make quick work of them and collapse back. My heads throbbing as everything spins. I'm not sure if it's my throbbing head or my pounding heartbeat but I can hear a rhythmic beat all around me. I try to shove the creatures off of me but they won't budge. Suddenly the creature moves and I freak out thinking I hadn't killed it properly. I reach for the tire iron ready to strike as at the creature rises up and gets tossed to the side and I'm looking into the face of Tye Dillinger. "Hey! It's okay, it's just me." He says quietly before looking over his shoulder, "Zigman! She is over here!" he calls out before reaching in and slowly helping me out of the trunk.

Tye steadies me as I struggle to stay on my feet, "you good?" Tye asks me and I nod, watching Dolph sprinting between the cars taking me in his arms as soon as he reaches me. I let him fuss over me, assuring him that aside from a nasty headache I'm okay. "Where did they come from?" I ask Seth, trying to change the focus of the conversation. "There is a roadblock ahead. The creatures were stacked up behind the barrier when they broke through flooding the road." He explains before adding that he hopes we will now be able to move the cars off the road and clear a path for us to drive through. Most of the group starts clearing the road as Dolph leads me back to our car still fussing over me.

It takes about half an hour to clear a path through the cars and move the pieces of broken barricade aside and we are finally able to back on the road. I sit in the backseat between Dolph and Ravyn, my head still throbbing painfully from hitting it on the trunk latch. I close my eyes and lay my head on Dolph's shoulder, wiling the throbbing to stop.

I wake up later, unsure of how much time had passed to find us parked in a parking lot of a roadside motel, not unlike the one we just left this morning. I look around, it's way too early for us to be stopping for the day. I ask Dolph what's going on, "we are stopping early. Jericho doesn't think we will make it as far as we planned because of the road block and we don't want to be driving in the dark." He states, opening his door to climb out. I sigh, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes, my headache returning now that I am awake. "You okay friend?" Ravyn asks me from my other side. "Just a headache. I'm fine." She looks ready to argue so I slide out the door Dolph had left open, avoiding the conversation. I have to hold on the side of the car as my vision spins before finally coming back into focus.

I watch as a small group clears a handful of rooms so we can get some sleep. We get the signal for the all clear and I follow silently behind Dolph as we find a room to share with Ravyn and Tyler. I wrinkle my noise at the stale air in the room, stuffy from having been shut up for months, despite the smell I immediately go and lay down on one of the dusty beds unable to stay on my feet any longer. "Some of the group is meeting up to discuss tomorrow's travel plans, do we want to join them?" Tyler asks from the doorway to the adjoining room. I turn my back to them laying on my side. "You boys go ahead. You can fill us in when you get back." Ravyn says ushering them away. The door closes softly behind them before the bed sinks down behind me as Ravyn sits down on the edge of the bed.

"Friend? You okay?" I don't respond so she gently places a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, talk to me." She insists. I roll over, sitting up with my back against the headboard pulling my knees to my chest. "Do you think we are doing the right thing?" I ask looking her in the eye. "What do you mean?" "Going West…do you think we should be doing this?" I clarify. "J…this…this was your idea…" She says sounding confused. "I know. I'm just worried about people getting hurt following my plan." I admit. She is silent for a while, "I think…I think we are just going to have to get used to the idea that we are going to lose people. It won't be your fault. We had to leave the motel, we needed a plan and it just happened to be your idea that we agreed on. The end goal is a great one, but that doesn't mean the path to get there will be easy, but that doesn't mean one of the other ideas would have been any safer. It's taken us some time and some unfortunate loses but I think this group is ready to take a stand and try to find a new sense of normal." She says trying to reassure me. "Thanks friend." I say knowing she is right. If this group really didn't want to make this journey, we wouldn't be doing it.

Dolph and Tyler return from the meeting. Dolph climbs into the bed next to me, "how's your head?" He asks me gently cupping my face in his hands. I lean into his touch, "it hurts." I say truthfully, "but it's getting better." He grins, kissing me on the cheek, "so what's the plan?" I ask. "We are just going to keep plugging along tomorrow. Pretend like today never happened. Tyler informs us, "so we should get some shut eye. Seth wants to get an early start again. He doesn't like the idea of staying idle." I shiver, my eyes darting nervously towards the door, shut and locked with nothing but a flimsy latch. "I don't blame him for that." I admit wrapping my arms around myself. Dolph takes me in his arms, "you rest. I'm on watch first." He tells me kissing my temple and tucking the musty motel covers around me. He blows out the flame in the lantern plunging the room into darkness and sits at the foot of the bed near the door listening. I fight sleep, afraid of what visions will visit me in my dreams. I stare at his silhouette in the darkness for hours. Eventually someone comes in, relieving him of his watch. He crawls up the bed, I feign sleep as he crawls under the covers, pulls me into his arms and instantly falls asleep as I remain awake.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The next couple of days are thankfully quiet. The roads are more manageable, we haven't run into anymore roadblocks and aside from a few patches of abandoned cars the roads are clear. I try not to let myself slip into a false sense of security, but I do allow myself a moment to relax. If I let my mind wander just enough all this driving just feels like any other day before the world turned upside down and I can imagine that we are just making the next town of a loop, except we don't know when the loop is going to end.

The endless driving, staying in one musty motel after the other while trying to scavenge any supplies we can, siphoning gas from abandoned cars, looting gas stations and people's trunks for food starts to feel normal. Most things have been picked over before we get there but we take whatever we can. The part that worries me the most is how we never see any signs of life. All these supplies being as picked over means people have been here before us, but where are they now? At the end of our third night on the road we pull of at our next motel. I climb out of the car stretching my stiff muscles. There is a chill in the air tonight that makes me think more snow is on the way. I reach back into the car to grab my backpack out of the backseat, slinging it over my shoulders. There is a commotion to my left as Sami and Tye come backing out of the room they were clearing, weapons raised. My hand reaches to my hip where my weapon is holstered and I take a couple steps forward towards them, my heart pounding. Tye puts a hand up to stop me when he sees me approaching. Everyone in the parking lot is on high alert, wondering what is happening when finally, four creatures appear in the doorway, fighting each other to squeeze through the doorframe. They burst through, tumbling to the ground. Sami and Tye each stab one in the head, but the other two make it back to their feet. I rush forward pulling out my weapon circling behind the two creatures. I quickly stab one in the back of the head while Tye and Sami take out the last one.

By now everyone else has finished clearing their rooms and a crowd has gathered. "What the hell happened out here?!" Corbin demands storming over to us. "There were creatures in the room." Tye says stating the obvious. "I can see that you idiot. Why the hell did you let them out?!" He yells. "Hey, relax you big stupid idiot." Tye says, "we didn't mean to let them out. They were all packed into the bathroom and we didn't know it." He spats angrily, defending himself. Corbin just rolls his eyes, "you put us all at risk!" He keeps yelling. "Would you shut up!" I hiss, "you don't know if there any more of them around! You are the one putting us at risk with your yelling." Corbin turns, glaring daggers at me. "You don't have much room to talk. This whole death trip was your idea!" He shoves past me, standing in the open doorway of the hotel room that Tye and Sami cleared. He stops there and turns to face me again pointing a finger angrily in my face. "You are an idiot, and you…" he stops surveying the group gathered around, "all of you are fools for going on this journey. We should have gone South where it would be warm, where we had homes but no, we are going West, in winter." He complains, before huffing, "Idiots." He shakes his head, "I can't believe I followed along on this fool plan. I should have…" He is cut off by a fifth creature suddenly appearing behind him sinking its teeth into his neck. With all the yelling we hadn't heard the creature sneaking up behind him until it was too late.

The group is so stunned that it takes a moment for anyone to react. Several of us move forward to try and free Corbin from the creature's grasp. I hack at one of its arms, managing to chop it off. There are so many of us hacking at it that I'm not sure whose weapon it is that finally lands the kill shot. The creature and Corbin both collapse to the ground. I look down horrified at the sight in front of me. Corbin is staring up at all of us, eyes wide, gasping, each breath just sending blood spilling from the wound in his throat. He takes one last breath, choking on his own blood and his eyes slide closed.

I jump when something brushes my hand but it's only Dolph taking my hand. I scan the group and everyone is sharing the same look of shock and horror at what we just witnessed. My heart is pounding in my ears, I hear nothing else but it's rhythmic thumping. It isn't until I feel a tugging on my arm that I finally snap out of my stupor taking my eyes off Corb's bloody body. Everyone is scattering, running back to the cars, my eyes catch sight of Dolph and I can see that he is yelling something at me, but in my state of shock I don't hear the words. He is yelling and pulling on my arm but I stay rooted to the spot. Dolph points and I look at where he is pointing and a new wave of panic washes over me at the sight of the creatures coming around the side of the building.

As if someone unmuted the world I'm suddenly bombarded by a rush of sounds. Dolph urging me to move, car engines roaring to life and the guttural growl of the herd. I force my feet to move, allowing myself to be dragged towards a car that already has Tyler behind the wheel and Ravyn in the front. Dolph shoves me in the backseat quickly crawling in behind me slamming the door shut behind him. "Go! Go! Go!" He yells at Tyler who quickly throws the car into reverse, running into a couple of creatures who go flying up into the air, landing with a thud. "Shit!" Tyler curses, shifting the car into drive, the tires spinning trying to gain traction.

We finally gain forward momentum and take off down the street joining our caravan of cars. We manage to catch up the last car and put some distance between us and the herd. I keep looking out the back window, afraid that the herd will still be back there. I'm doing one of my checks when suddenly there is a squealing of tires and I'm being slung forward as Tyler slams on the breaks to avoid running into the car in front of us. I brace myself as we come sliding to a stop. "What the fuck!?" I yell, looking out the windshield trying to figure out why we stopped. The car in front of us is turned nearly sideways so I can't see around it. We all exchange glances and start climbing out of the car, Sami, Kevin, Tye and Zack climb out of the car in front of us looking just as confused, "Do you guys know what the hell is going on?" Dolph asks but no one does. We walk around their sideways car and walk towards the front of our caravan where everyone seems to have gathered.

Everyone seems to be looking down at something in the road. We find an opening and join the circle, and I gasp. Lying face down in the road is a body. Whether it's a human body or a creature I have no idea. "It…it just jumped right out in front of me." Seth stammers, obviously shaken. "It jumped? So, it was a human? Did you hit them?" Natalya asks. Seth just shrugs, lost for words. "Should someone you know…make sure…that…that it's dead?" Alexa says, looking around nervously. No one volunteers for this idea, all of us are too afraid to look. "Okay…everyone back up." Dean says, shoving his way through the group, sighing. He nudges the body with a toe of his boot. Nothing happens. He kneels down and starts to roll the body over. The moment it is over we can tell it's a woman. A split second after her back hits the pavement her eyes fly open causing us all to jump as a sadistic smile crosses her face. "Better run, or you are gonna die." She taunts us in a sing song voice. When none of us move she laughs more. "I warned you." She sings again before letting out a loud whistle before continuing to laugh manically.

The group casts wary glances at each other. Wondering what this woman is going on about. "Maybe we should g…" Alexa never gets to finish her thoughts as a shot rings out, a bullet striking her right between the eyes. she crumples to the ground and someone screams, but all I can do is stare at Alexa's body. I'm brought back to reality when I get yanked to the ground as more bullets begin to fly. "We have to get out of here!" Kofi yells over the gunfire. "How?! If we get up, we will be shot!" Renee counters, ducking as a bullet pings off the trunk of the car near her. The gunfire suddenly stops and the silence is almost deafening after all the noise. It's a short-lived reprieve when a new barrage of bullets begins raining down again. "Next time they stop to reload I say we make a break for the woods." Kofi says, nodding towards the tree line on the other side of the road.

Everyone nods in agreement. I turn to look at Dolph, he gives me a nod and takes my hand, holding it tight. I hold my breath waiting for the gunfire to stop, ready to run. The moment it stops we take off, our feet thundering on the pavement. The hold Dolph has on my hand is so tight I feel it going numb but I'm grateful for it. We just reach the tree line when the gun fire erupts again. Bullets kick up the dirt at our feet as our group spreads out into the woods trying to avoid being hit. I lower my head, but keep running, Dolph pulling me along.

The next time the gunfire stops Dolph and I are alone. I can still hear the sounds of the others crashing through the woods but no one is insight. I turn my head trying to look around, trying to catch sight of Ravyn and Tyler but when I do someone pops out from behind a tree, gun raised. Dolph and I jump back at the sight, our hands separating from the sudden movement. I stumble backwards, tripping over a tree root as gunfire erupts once again. I fall back losing sight off Dolph as I tumble down int a ravine.

I hit the bottom with a thud that knocks the wind out of me and I see stars. I don't know how long I lay at the bottom of the ravine but when I open my eyes it's getting dark. The woods are quiet as I stiffly try to sit up. The temperature has dropped dramatically, I wrap my arms around myself looking around. Where is everybody? I get to my feet looking for a way out of the ravine. "Hello?" I call out quietly hoping someone from our group can hear me.

I find a spot that looks to not be too steep that I can hopefully climb out. I scramble my way up the dirt, grabbing on to trees and finding foot holds to help me on my ascent. My hands are numb from the cold as I grasp desperately at the top of the hill pulling myself over the edge. I roll on to my side, gasping for breath, my lungs burning with every intake of icy cold air. I close my eyes as I try to control my breathing.

A branch breaks to my left and my eyes fly back open. I scramble back to my feet looking for some place to hide. I dash towards a large tree and crouch behind it listening. I can hear footsteps crunching the dead leaves littering the ground heading in my direction. I have no idea if the footsteps belong to someone from our group, the group that was shooting at us or the dead. I hold my breath, trying to not make a sound as the footsteps get closer. I remain crouched, inching slowly around the tree trunk, trying to stay out of sight. The footsteps walk by and I take a chance to peek around the tree to see who it is. When I see my heart drops into my stomach and I have to try not to scream.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Friend!" I hiss as loud as I dare. She whips around startled. "J!?" She hisses back at me making her way towards me. I hug her and hear her hiss in pain. "What?" I ask pulling back. She reaches up and gently pokes at her left shoulder. "I think it's dislocated. I'll be fine though, have you seen Tyler?" She sounds worried. "No. You are the only one I've seen. Do you have any idea what happened?" She shakes her head. "We ran into the woods like everybody else and all hell broke loose. We got separated…there were people chasing us with guns…I have to find him and see if he is okay…." She begins to shiver, whether it's from nerves or cold I don't know. "We will find him, and Dolph and the others too. We will find them." I say trying to convince both her and myself. "Come on…it's getting dark…we should try to find some shelter. I don't like the idea of being out here at night."

Ravyn nods in agreement as we begin our hike through the woods. I'm trying to remember which way it is back to the road but in all the chaos and gunfire from earlier I lost all sense of direction. We walk for a couple of hours and just as I feel like we are about to be out of luck a small cabin appears in a clearing, and not a moment too soon, my teeth are chattering so hard from the cold and it's beginning to snow again. I have Ravyn stay back since she is injured while I go clear the cabin.

I jiggle the doorknob testing to see if it is unlocked while at the same time making noise to attract any creatures that may be inside. I wait a minute before I slowly open the door and step inside. It appears to be just a one room hunting cabin. It looks untouched as I scan the room, it's actually clean and not looted like everything else I've seen since everything happened. There is one other door in the cabin and I quickly open it, ready to pounce on anything that might be in there. All I find though is small bathroom. I sigh, thank god something safe today at last. I go back to the main door and wave to Ravyn to come in. I shut the door behind her, bolting it. "Come on, sit down and let me look at that shoulder." I tell her pointing at the single bed against the back wall of the cabin. "J, I'm fine, really." She tries to argue. "No, we can't leave it like that. I'm…I'm going to have to try and pop it back into place." I tell her sternly. She sighs, finally caving. "Lay back." I tell her, slipping my backpack off my shoulders. I've had it on since the motel…since Corbin. I dig through it hoping I have any medical supplies, particularly something for her to bite down on. I find a roll of medical tape but nothing else. I look around the rapidly darkening cabin and find an old rag. I quickly roll it up and wrap it in several layers of tape. I also find an old bedsheet and some scissors and cut it up so that I will have something to use as a sling when we are done. "Bite down on this." I tell her handing her the taped rag. I gently poke at her shoulder before I turn her arm hoping the joint slides back into place before I pull hard waiting for the pop. Ravyn is yelling in pain, tears sliding down her cheeks. I give her a moment to compose herself before I help her to sit up, carefully maneuvering her arm so I can strap it to her chest with the sling.

I finish tying the knot, "how's that feel? Secure enough?" She has a pained expression on her face, "hurts like a mother fucker." She says poking it gently. "I know, but it had to be done." I tell her. "You're probably right." She sighs, her gaze drifting to the window. "It's really starting to come down out there. Do you think the others are okay?" I flinch hoping she doesn't notice it. I've been trying to not think about Dolph and the others. I put on what I hope is a brave face, "I'm sure they are fine. They probably made it back to the road and are waiting out the storm in the cars." I look around trying to find a change of subject. My eyes land on a wood burning stove in the kitchen portion of the cabin. "Do you think it would be safe to light a fire?" I ask nodding towards the stove, "we need to get some heat and light in here." I ask managing to changing the subject. "Depends…how far away do you think those nut jobs are? It is getting cold though…." She shivers, and I nod in agreement rubbing my arms for some warmth. "We may have to risk it. We don't have the supplies we need to survive a night in these temps." Ravyn smiles sadly, "one of the rare times I wish I had Tyler's ring gear. The floof is so warm…" She starts rambling and I can tell she misses Tyler. "I'm worried about Tyler, and Dolph…I guess I should be worried about us too…but I'm really worried about the boys." My brain flashes to the person with the gun and losing my hold on Dolph's hand. I look down at the hand that had been holding his, it's almost like I can still feel his hand letting go of mine again. Having no idea what happened to him is killing me. "I'm just trying not to think about it. I've gone down that rabbit hole of worry before. It's best to just try to not think about it if you can help it. Why don't you dig through my bag and see if I have any food. I am going to go out and see if can find some firewood and light a fire." I pull a light weight jacket out of my bag, the only source of warmth I have before handing the bag to Ravyn. She nods at me, "just be careful out there. Take something to defend yourself and don't be too long." I grin, "don't worry, I only plan to loop the cabin and hope there is a wood pile." I pat my hip, "and I'm always prepared these days."

I unbolt the door, opening it slowly, taking a peak outside. The coast looks clear. I walk around the side of the cabin and am relieved to find a small pile of wood. There's only enough for a couple days at the most. I make a couple trips bringing it all inside. After the last trip I bolt the door behind me, and even go as far as closing all the curtains, hoping to keep the cabin dark to anyone who may be outside. I quickly light a fire and soon the room is filled with a soft glow of light and warmth. "Find anything good in my bag? I was going to restock it at the motel but that clearly never happened." She shrugs her good shoulder, "a few canned goods, medical supplies but not much else." That's what I was afraid of. I wander the kitchen hoping maybe there will be something here. I scrounge up a couple out dated cans of soup. We have a light meal, trying to make our supplies last before settling in to try and get some sleep.

The firewood doesn't last as long as I thought it would. We only get a day and half out of it and the snow has yet to stop. I had hoped someone from our group would have found us by now. I was sure someone else would be out there. Now I'm really worried. Where the hell is everyone? The cold is becoming unbearable, we try to keep talking to each other, keep our brains engaged. It's hard to talk with our constant shivering. I just want to be warm again. Our situation isn't helped by the fact that we haven't eaten much. There's only so much cold canned soup a person can stomach. To keep warm Ravyn and I made a nest out of all the blankets in the cabin and put them on the floor and sleep leaning against the bed, using our body heat, at least what's left of it, to keep warm. It's an uphill battle because everything is just so fucking cold. As consciousness gets harder and harder we start going over each minute detail of our careers just so we keep talking. There are times though where I can't stop myself passing out and fall into a delirious dream filled unconsciousness.

I jerk awake from a nightmare, my brain still foggy. The first rays of dawn are beginning to peak through the window, so we have lived to see another day. My whole body trembles uncontrollably. I slowly turn my head to look at Ravyn who is buried in her blankets. Her pale complexion is a terrifying shade of blue and it scares the hell out of me. "Friend?" My voice is hoarse. I clear my throat and slowly reach out and gently shake her, "Friend?" I say again, voice a little bit stronger but she doesn't wake up. "Ravyn!" I yell, shaking her harder and to my relief her eyes start to flutter open. I can't stop the tears of relief that slide down my face. She groans shivering, "w…w…w…can't you see I'm trying to hibernate here?" She whispers. I laugh slightly despite my tears, "I thought you were fucking dead!" I choke back a sob trying to calm my pounding heart. Ravyn looks at me, hearing the emotion in my voice. "Whoa, easy there friend. Don't rush me. I may look dead but I'm not quite there yet." I grin wiping the tears from my eyes. "Fuck, it's cold." She groans. I nod, "I know. I…I don't think we can stay here anymore." I worry out loud, trying so hard not to start freaking out. "I wish we still had technology. It sure would be nice to get a weather report right about now…I don't want to head off into a snow storm." I snort, "I'd brave the snowstorm if I had a GPS to follow." I retort. "Ohhh…GPS…I even kind of miss Siri…we've got to get out of here before I go completely nuts. Which way should we go?" She asks and I wish I knew. "I'm really regretting never having been a Girl Scout right about now…I mean we were heading West so we need to figure out which way West is. These woods can't go on forever." I say shrugging. "Let's try to scavenge anything useful from the cabin and get out there. There's only so much daylight and I'd rather not get caught out in the open after dark. Hopefully we can find some of the others…" she says sounding hopeful. I nod. "I'm hoping they are looking for us and maybe we will run into them. You stay put, rest that shoulder, I'll look around." I slowly make my way to my feet, my joints and muscles are frozen stiff. I wrap myself tightly in my blanket and shuffle around the cabin. There isn't much to search and we scavenged it pretty hard the first night here but I might as well look again now that we are desperate. I open all the cabinets, pulling out all the things I had ignored the first time. A box of stale crackers, containers of prunes and a package of Twinkies. What a feast.

We pack the meager supplies into my pack and I sling it on my back before quickly wrapping myself in my blanket. I help Ravyn carefully to her feet being gently with her shoulder. "Alright, let's do this." I say as we open the door. The wind cuts me like a knife and I'm convinced we are going to die out here. My feet are soaked through instantly from trudging through the snow. We better be close to the road or we won't make it.

It is slow going trudging through the snow and howling winds. We definitely weren't prepared for the elements. We've been walking for a few hours, but with our weakened states it feels like days. Our bodies protest every move we make but we trudge on and I wonder how much longer we can go on before one of just shuts down. one stumble and I don't think either of us will get up again. I feel Ravyn sway next to me and I try to grab her to keep her on her feet but I'm so weak I just go down with her. "Come on Friend…we need to get up. We have to keep moving." I urge her, pulling on her arm. "I…I can't." she says weakly. "I'm just so tired." Her words are barely a whisper as her eye lids flutter close. "No no no no no…" I mutter shaking her. "Friend! Come on!" But I get no response. I'm having trouble breathing from the exertion of trying to revive Ravyn and the panic I'm feeling. Everything around me is spinning. I hear the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow. I turn my head in the direction the noise came from and I can make out the form of a person approaching us, gun raised. I put my hands up in surrender before everything goes black.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 ****I'm on a beach. The sun is shining and the sand is warm between my toes. I'm alone, just walking down the beach, no idea where I am going but I'm not afraid. As I walk towards the seemingly endless horizon a form starts to appear. It doesn't even feel like I am walking anymore, now I'm floating. As I get closer, I see that it's Dolph and my heart bursts with joy as I start running towards him. As I reach him, I leap into his arms but he vanishes and I fall, but I don't hit the ground. I just keep falling into a black hole of nothingness until…

My eyes fly open. It was a dream. My heart is racing, I swallow, my throat is dry. I look around, I'm in a bedroom. I sit up slowly, the room spins so I close my eyes. I hear the doorknob click and the creek of a door. I open my eyes and try to scramble out of the bed as the door slowly opens. My legs are like Jell-O so I am unable to defend myself from whoever is opening the door as I collapse back into the bed in a tangle of blankets. The door squeaks the rest of the way open and a woman steps across the threshold carrying a tray of food. I have a sudden flash of a memory, the woman in the woods with the gun. Ravyn. "Where is my friend?" I demand, my voice hoarse from lack of use. The woman doesn't say anything for a moment but sets the tray of food down in front of me. My stomach growls loudly at the smell of the warm soup. I eye the woman skeptically, "please, eat, you need to get your strength back." Her voice is quiet, friendly. "Tell me where my friend is." I demand. "She's fine. She is resting in the next room." The woman tells me. I throw the blankets off me off me, and slowly this time, try to get to my feet. "Take me to her. I need to see her." My legs won't support me so I have to hold on to the bed to stand. The woman must sense that I won't back down. se comes next to me and I flinch, "I won't hurt you. I just want to help." She links her arm through mine supporting my weight.

We leave the rom and she takes me across the hall and opens the door. Laying in the bed sound asleep, but looking better is Ravyn. "She will be fine, like you she needs to rest. Now how about we go back and you eat that soup before it gets cold." I allow her to lead me back to the room, I take one more glance back over my shoulder at Ravyn as the door closes. I get settled back into bed and accept the tray of food. "I'm Meg by the way." The woman introduces her self to me. "JJ" I say between mouthfuls. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I started eating. "Is this your house?" I ask. "No, it's one of the empty houses in the community." "Community?" I ask sounding astonished by the idea. "Yes, you are within the walls of The Colony. It's a gated community that we have fortified and have been living in for months." She says as if it's a completely normal thing. "So…it's safe?" I ask, not sure if I believe her. She shrugs, "as safe as anything can be these days. Someone in the neighborhood was a doomsday prepper so when things started going south, he got everyone together and somehow convinced them to build walls around the neighborhood. It kept them mostly safe. There were incidents…most of the original occupants are gone now. It's been getting rough having to go out and find supplies lately." I know what she means. "What about survivors? Do you find a lot of people roaming the woods?" I ask hopefully. She eyes me, hearing the desperation in my voice. "Do you have people still out there?" I nod, picking at a snag in the blanket. "We are part of a larger group. We were traveling West...we were attacked…I don't now what happened to anyone." Meg looks concerned, "sounds like you had a run in with The Legion. They wreak havoc in these parts. They want our community because of our walls." She explains to me.

"But, have you found anyone else?" I ask again and she looks at me sadly. "No, I'm sorry. You and your friend are the first people we've found in weeks." I nod sadly, so Dolph and Tyler could still be out there…or…"do these…these Legion people…do they take people in?" She hesitates, "No…they…they usually only kill." My heart drops into the pit of my stomach. How will I tell Ravyn that Tyler is likely dead? No, I can't accept that. "IS there someone who can take me back to the road? I need to know for sure…my friend…her boyfriend is out there. I can't tell her that he may be dead with out knowing for sure." I beg, "plus…my boyfriend...I…" I get choked up noting be able to continue. Meg pats my arm, "there isn't' enough daylight left today…and the snow is still coming down. If conditions are better, we can go in the morning. You should rest some more. I'll come back in the morning." she leaves before I can say anything else. I finish the food then climb out of bed. I got to the window and look out at the neighborhood of cookie cutter homes. Everything looks normal, like it did before, well everything except the giant wall looming in the backyards of the houses. I grab a blanket off the bed and sneak across the hall into Ravyn's room. I curl up in a chair by her bed and just sit there.

I fall asleep at Ravyn's bedside and don't wake until I feel someone shaking me. I jolt awake, looking around in alarm not remembering where I am. "Hey, it's just me." MY eyes focus on Meg in the dim predawn light. "It stopped snowing in the night. We have a scout team going out that will take you to where your cars are." She whispers to me. I stand up, "when?" I ask eager to go. "Now. I have some warm clothes for you." I follow her back into my room. I work at pulling on a thick sweater she had laid on the bed when I'm over taken by a coughing fit. My lungs are on fire and my eyes water. I finally stop coughing and get my breathing under control. Meg comes over and places a hand on my forehead, "you're burning up. You aren't going anywhere." She tries to force me back into bed. "No no no no no…I have…" I'm stopped by another fit as I try to hack out the words. "Not happening, if you go out there in this ate you will be a danger to everyone. The scouts will go to the area where you say your cars are. They will find your group." I give in and lay in the bed, my strength quickly fading as I burrow under the covers shivering. "I'll send someone to bring you something for your fever."

I can't stop the feverish shivering that has taken all control of my body away from me. A few months later I hear the door open. I slowly lift my head as a girl comes in. "Hi." She says softly, "I'm Kat. Meg asked me to bring you some meds. How are you feeling?" The only answer I can give her is to start coughing uncontrollably. "That doesn't sound good. Can you try to sit up and take this pill?" I nod, slowly rolling over and sitting up. She hands me a glass of water and a couple of pills. "These should bring down your fever. She tells me, smiling sweetly. I swallow the pills with a mouthful of water, coughing. "Thank you." I say weakly. "how long until the scout team comes back?" I ask glancing towards the window, trying to judge the time of day. "Oh, they won't be back for a few more hours. It takes a while to hike through the snow and clear their tracks so no one follows them." she tells me. "Don't worry, if your friends are out there. Meg and the others…well they will find them. You just get some more rest. Maybe if you sleep, they will be back by the time you wake up." She sounds so sure and positive. "Yeah…maybe." I say totally unconvinced.

Kat leaves the room so that I can rest. I try to fight sleep. I'm so worried about the others, but my body is so wracked by the fever that I can't help but sleep. When I wake back up it's dark, a candle has been lit by my bed. I set up in bed quickly, my heart racing, is the group back yet? A floorboard creeks just outside the door and the doorknob starts turning. The door opens and Meg walks in. She is alone. "did you find them?" I ask right away s she closes the door behind her. She doesn't say anything as she crosses the room and sits in a chair at my bedside. "No." I swear my heart stops beating. "was…was there any sign they had been there?" I ask not really sure if I want to know the answer. "There was…I'm sorry…but the snow around your cars was stained with blood…but there were no bodies."

I can't even begin to process this information. Could everyone really be gone? "JJ?" Meg is softly calling my name. "I'm sorry about your group." I shake my head. "No…how do you know they are…" I can't bring myself to say the word. "They could still be out there….injured…" I sound pathetic and delusional I know. "I don't think that's possible. There was a logo drawn on one of the cars…it was Legion's logo. Reality this me like a ton of bricks. So, they are gone…everyone is gone, and now I have to tell my best friends that the man she loves isn't coming back, and for the second time in our brief relationship I have to live with Dolph being gone. "Can I get you anything?" Meg asks me sadly. "Has my friend woken up yet?" I ask ignoring her. "No…not yet I'm afraid." I throw the covers off me and weakly climb out of bed. "I'm going to go sit with her. I want to be the first person she sees." I say trying to force my weakened legs to hold me up as I take a shaky step towards the door. Meg comes and takes my arm, steadying me. She walks me across the hall and helps me to sit down in the chair by her bed. She hands me a spare blanket which I wrap around myself, still slightly chilled from the fever. "I'll be downstairs if you need anything." Meg says quietly and I can only nod.

I don't sleep. I spend the whole night thinking about everyone we've lost. Dango, Nikki, Cena…countless others and now those of us who expected to journey somewhere to begin a new life only Ravyn and I hare left. Where do we go from here? How do we go on? I think I'm too numb to cry over Dolph. I've shed those tears before. I need to stay strong for Ravyn. I' staring out the window, watching the first rays of light begin to appear. I hear a noise behind me and turn to see Ravyn stirring slightly. I go to her side, "Friend?" I whisper as her eyes flutter open. "J?" she says hoarsely, here es darting around the room. I hand her a glass of water sitting on the nightstand and help her to take a few small sips. "Where are we?" "A place called The Colony. You collapsed, we both did, out in the woods, but this group found us. From what I can tell it's a safe place." She takes a moment to process this. "How long was I out?" She finally askes, "a couple of days." I answer and her eyes grow wide, "days!? But what about find the boys…and the others?" Shit, we've reached this part already. I bite my lower lip. "Meg…she's the one who found us, she sent out some scouts to try to find our cars, to see if they could find the group…she…she." I pause to take a deep breath to settle my nerves. "All they found was pools of blood. No bodies…they…they are gone" I blurt out and she just stares at me. "How can this Meg be sure?" "She knows the group that ambushed us on the road. They sound pretty crazy. It doesn't sound good friend." I tell her and the news hits her hard as she begins to cry. "Friend…I'm so sorry…" I tell her reaching out to lay a comforting hand on her arm. "Go away." She spats and I jerk my arm back as if I've been scalded. "Ravyn…" "LEAVE! NOW! This is all your fault! I never want to see your face again!" She yells at me before rolling over so her back is to me, her shoulders shaking with her sobs. I stand up and go to the door. I turn back once more, "I'm sorry Friend." I whisper before leaving the room closing the door silently behind me. I head back to my room and collapse onto the bed curling into a ball. Her words echo through my head, 'this is all your fault', she is right. This is all my fault. I just got everyone killed and now my best friend hates me.

I lay awake all night think of Dolph, Tyler, all my friends, and especially of Ravyn. I can only hope that she will forgive me in time, even if I know I will never forgive myself. Kat comes in bringing some food. "you look better today." She says. "Have you been to see my friend?" I ask, not caring how I am. Her face falls. "I have…she's not well I'm afraid. She didn't want any food…in fact she didn't say a word to me at all…just stared at the wall." I sigh, "will you please keep an eye on her? I want to talk to Meg about going out on a scouting mission. I have to see things for myself. "Kat seems hesitant, but agrees to keep an eye on Ravyn.

I climb out of bed, change into some fresh clothes that have been left for me and head downstairs for the first time since arriving here. I find Meg sitting at the kitchen table with a teenage girl who smiles shyly at me. I tell Meg my hope to go out and see the site for myself, but she tells me that another storm is coming in so no scouts are going out until it passes. She introduces me to the girl named Alli and says that she will show me around the neighborhood. I reluctantly agree and we set off. The girl walks quietly by my side, occasionally pointing out a few homes where someone lives with a particular skillset that helps keep the community running. When she isn't talking about The Colony I notice her glancing sideways at me as if she wants to ask me a question. It's a look I've seen countless times before when out in a public and fans recognize us. "You know who I am don't you?" I ask and her eyes grow wide, cheeks burning in embarrassment. She just nods and I smile slightly, "so you are…were a wrestling a fan?" I question, glad for the conversation. "I did yeah, its one of the things I miss from the old days." She admits, "who were some of your favorites?" I ask as we tun to head back to Meg's. "Oh, so many…Tye, Breeze, Orton, Dolph…." Hearing her name the names of everyone lost, and hearing Dolph's name, I think reality finally hits me and I break down. I've bottled my fears and emotions for so long trying to stay positive for Ravyn that I didn't allow myself to feel anything and now everything is flooding to the surface. I sink to my knees in the snow, tears streaming down my face, gasping for breath. Alli kneels down beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry." She says. I can't even respond, only sob. A crowd is gathering despite the snow, my hysterical howls drawing them from the warmth of their homes. I feel a pressure on my shoulder and look up through tear filled eyes to see Alli standing over my offering me a hand up, "come on, let's go back." I numbly allow her to help me back to my feet and lead me back to the house.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The next couple of days are a blur. I don't get out of bed. Kat and Alli bring me trays of food that go untouched. A storm rages outside, wind howling, the snow swirling outside my window. The third day after my breakdown I realize everything is quiet. I look towards the window and notice the sun is shining. I slowly climb out of bed and look out the window to see the community bustling. There are kids having a snowball fight across the street and the sound of laughter, it is a strange, foreign sound to my ears after everything that has happened over the last few months. Watching the kids, run around laughing, acting like nothing is wrong with the world. I can't help the small smile that creeps across my face at their innocence. "It's a great sound isn't it?" I jump at the sound of Meg's voice behind me. "It's something I never thought I would hear again." I turn away from the window. Meg is watching me closely. "we uh…have a scout team going out today. I thought maybe you would want to go. Get out of this room for a while." The idea does sound appealing. Maybe a change of scenery would be good for me, take my mind off of things.

"How's my friend?" I asking looking toward the doorway. "Why don't you go see for yourself?" I shake my head, the venom in her voice from the other night haunts me when she said she hated me. "I don't think that's a good idea." I say slipping into a warm coat that Meg just offered me. "Do you want me to tell her you are going out there?" I just shake my head again to answer her. "Come on then, I'll introduce you to the scout crew before you leave."

I follow her downstairs and out the door into the cold air. we walk around a corner and there is a group of about half a dozen people lingering by a large gate. Meg introduces me to Dwight, Nea, Jeff, Claudette, Feng and David. They all eye me skeptically and I can tell they don't want me to go with them. "Here, I had our weapons guy fashion this for you." She hands me a sawed-off piece of pipe with a sharp blade welded to it and a nice rubber grip for the handle. "You have to be able to defend yourself out there and defend the group." She warns me and I nod, "I will." I try to reassure her as much as myself. The man introduced to me as David grunts, "come on, are we going or not?" He snaps with an English accent. Meg smirks shaking her head and I can think is that this guy is a douche. The gates open and my company heads out and I follow behind, nerves setting in to be leaving the safety of the colony.

We walk for hours and I wonder where we could possibly be going. I fee like there is no signs of a town anywhere. Just before I can speak up we round a corner and there is a large strip mall just sitting in the middle of nowhere. It looks pretty rundown and I can't believe that there would be anything to scavenge here. I tag along silently, my head on a swivel. My week of staying in made me forget how nerve wracking it is out here. David knocks on the window of a convenience store and waits to see if there are any creatures inside that will be drawn by the knock. After a few minutes he must deem it safe because we head inside. I wander the aisles and am shocked to see all the shelves stocked to the gills. "How is this possible?" I ask and Dwight comes up next to me, "we don't know. We think the whole town left. It was a small population farming community…this place was just forgotten. We found it on the way back from looking for your friends we just couldn't loot it because the storm was coming in." I feel the color drain from my face, "we are close to that road?" I ask "Oh yeah! It's just…" "Dwight! Shut up!" Claudette hisses at him and Dwight looks sheepish. "Sorry...I forgot." I look at all them, "forgot what?" I ask, "Meg didn't want you to know how close we would be." My brain is spinning. "I need to go there." I say not even trying to hide the begging in my voice. "No!" David says without hesitation. "Oh, come on, she should see it." Feng pipes up. David just grunts. "We will see how much daylight is left. That's the only promise I will make. Now get back to work." He grumbles before stomping away.

We work our way up the block loading ourselves down with supplies. As we leave the last store I look hopefully at David and he just rolls his eyes. "Let's be quick about it." We stash our supplies in the shop so we can pick them up on our way back before heading off. I have butterflies in my stomach as we walk. I'm so distracted that I don't notice the others have stopped until I run smack dab into Jeff. "sorry..." I say but I get shushed. "There's someone coming." David whispers to me. I strain to listen and then I catch the faint sound of voices in the distance. "Quick, into the woods." David orders. We hide just inside the tree line and listen. As the voices draw closer it becomes clear that they are bickering. My heart is pounding. I look back and forth amongst my companions and everyone but Dwight doesn't appear to be afraid. We crouch down amongst the trees, weapons drawn. I get mine out of its makeshift holster with shaking hands. The voices are a lot closer now and everyone raises their weapons and I do too. "I'm telling you, we are going the wrong way!" One of the voices says. "No! It's this way! I'm telling you." The other voice counters. "Don't tell me how to live you plug!" My jaw drops, "how dare you! You are the worst." I know those voices. I'm scrambling to my feet before I know what I'm doing. The others grab at me trying to stop me but I break free and go crashing through the trees. The figures freeze as I come barreling down the road at them. I see their initial fear turn to recognition as they realize what's going on. I throw my arms around them tears streaming down my face.

"I have never been so glad to see you idiots in my life!" I laugh through my tears looking into the faces of Breeze and Dilly. "J! What the hell happened to you!?" Dilly says hugging me again but Breeze pulls me away panic in his eyes, "have you seen Ravyn?! I don't know what happened to her." I put a hand on his shoulder, a smile on my face, "Breeze she is okay." I tell him about our time in the woods and then staying with Meg and her people. Then the rest of the scouting group comes out of the woods. Realization suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks, "Dolph! Do you know where he is?" The boys exchange looks, "we did…" "what do you mean you did?" They go on to explain that the group called The Entity was holding them all. "These people are fucking insane." Dilly states bluntly. "They kept talking about sacrificing us to something they called the entity? They think this entity is to blame for all the dead rising." "How did you get out?" David asks, "well for as crazy as they are they aren't too smart. At night they wouldn't be guarding us. We finally worked up the courage but Nattie was hurt, she tripped and they woke up. Only Breezus and I got out." Dilly explains. "Well, we have to go back! We need to get the others out of there!" I turn pleadingly to David, "please?" I beg. "There's no fucking way. We've already been out here too long. We need to head back, it will be dark soon." He protests. "Look, I know you don't know me…but I'm begging you…these are my friends…I'm going for them whether you help me or not." I can see I've won over everyone except David, but finally he groans. "Fine, Dwight, you head back, tell Meg what's going on." I look at Breeze, "you should go with him. Ravyn needs you." Breeze looks conflicted but nods. I hug him quickly before he goes off with Dwight. "Do you remember how to get back to their camp?" Jeff asks Dilly. "Yeah, you can't miss it. It's an old meat packing plant building. It's massive, and a maze once inside but I think I can get us back to where the others are, or at least where they were when I left with Breezus."

I walk next to Dilly as he leads the way, "Dilly…was…is…" I stammer unsure if I want to know the answer, "Dolph was fine. Really worried about you." I relax a bit hearing hat he was ok at least a few hours ago. We round a corner and a large factory looms in front of us. "Now what?" I ask. "You said they don't guard you at night?" David asks and Dilly nods, "at least before we tried to breakout they didn't." "I say we wait till tonight. Sneak in and hope the guard is low.

We hide ourselves in a nearby patch of trees and sit silently, waiting for the sun to go down. I sit near Dilly, wanting to get as much info out of him as I can about what happened that day. "We aren't really sure," he starts, "but we've had many nights to come up with theories…the only person they actually shot was Alexa…everyone else noticed they only shot at our feet. We think they were trying to heard us. Ost of us ended up in this clearing surrounded by trees…surrounded by them. They really beli…" he is interrupted by a popping sound. "Was that a gunshot?" Feng questions and the answer to her question more gunshots ring out. "Oh god…" I say trying to take steps towards the building but Dilly grabs my arm, "hang on…you can't go there!" he warns me as the gunfire continues. "Dilly! Those are our people! We have to help them!" I yell pulling my arm from his grasp. "Now, let's go!" I command, looking straight into David's eyes. He stares me down, "let's get this the fuck over with." He grumbles marching off towards the building. I follow quickly behind him. The gunfire has stopped and it's now eerily quiet. We sneak through halls, looking for any signs of the group. "Dilly, does anything look familiar? Are we going the right way?" I whisper. He shakes his head, "this place is like a maze. I don't know how Breeze and I made it out." I groan. We walk on until David suddenly stops, putting a finger to his lips to silence us, as if we had been making noise.

I strain, listening to hear what he hears. At first I hear nothing but then I hear it. It's a shuffling sound, it's gotta be creatures. David is poised, his weapon held high as the sound draws near. The shuffling is just around the corner and then a figure appears around the corner and I quickly grab David's arm before he can strike. "Stop!" I hiss looking into the terrified eyes of Zack. "J!" He breaths a sigh of relief. More of our group appears behind him and I search them eagerly for Dolph but I don't see him. "He's not here." Zack says reading my mind. "Where…" I begin, "I don't know. They came and took him…they forgot to relock the door, that's how we got out." He explains and I hang my head. I can't believe it. Every time I feel like I have been close to getting him back I hit another brick wall. I want to question Zack more about Dolph but David speaks up before I can, "we need to get out of here before we get caught." "No!" I all but yell, "not without Dolph!" I hiss starting to walk away but he grabs my arm, I yank it from his grasp, "don't touch me!" I do yell this time, fear and anger taking over any sense I have left. Zack steps between me and David, staring him down.

I'm about to say something when there is a scream from down the hall. "AFTER THEM!" I turn around to see the woman who had been laying in the middle of the road the day we were ambushed. More people, all in equal states of dirty disheveled mess appear behind her. Zack grabs my arm and pulls me after him as we take off running. Bullets start raining down around us as we round a corner. From behind me I hear Woods shout. I stop long enough to see him on the ground clutching his feet before being scooped up by E and Kofi, "go go go go!" they should and we keep running. We find the exit and burst through it scattering into the woods.

We don't go too far into the wood before stopping. "I don't think they followed us." Feng observes ad we stand there catching our breath, grasping at stitches in our sides. "We need to keep moving. There is a shelter not far from here where we can hunker down for the night. Let's move." David demands. E and Kofi help Xavier up and we fall into line behind David. I make my way over to Zack, need to know more about Dolph so I can make a plan on how to find him. "What happened." I ask, "We spent a few days locked in a room…those people…they are beyond crazy…Zigs…he was really worried about you…we didn't know if you and Ravyn were being held somewhere else or if…" "if we were dead." I finish for him. "Yeah…he was a mess. All he could think about was finding you." "I know the feeling. Just when I think I've found him…he's gone again." I sigh.

We reach David's shelter which is an old gas station and settle in for the night. I can't sleep, my brain is running with thoughts of Dolph. Is he alive? Did he escape and is now wandering the dark all alone? A tear slides down my cheek and I quickly swipe it away. Willing myself not to cry.

As soon as first light hits David gets us up and moving. I trudge along with the group trying to formulate a plan to slip away and go back to look for Dolph. I'm thinking of just fading back and slipping into the woods next to us and hoping no one notices, everyone is cold and tired so the state of the group is miserable. Just as I a have worked up the courage to try Jeff stops and points ahead of us down the road, "creature!" he whispers and I squint into the morning light. Sure enough, there is a creature walking with its back to us, dragging it's leg. I squint more taking in the creature's appearance and I gasp, hand flying to cover my mouth. "What is it?" Nattie asks and I shake my head. "It's Zigs." Zack says for me having realized the figure up the road with the long blonde hair is his best friend." Before I know what I'm doing I take off running up the road. Hands grasp at me, voices plead with me to stop but I just brush past them. I slow down to a jog as I get closer and then a walk.

I don't even try to stop the tears that are flowing down my face as I catch up to Dolph. His leg is mangled and he is covered in blood, raspy growls emanate from him "Dolph." I choke out sadly and his body jerks at the sound of my voice turning slowly, a bloody hand reaches out toward me, before stumbling, toppling on top of me taking me down with a thud. My head whiplashing back hard into the road making everything go black.


End file.
